The Whitney’s social distancing markers are more artful than most…or so it appears in front of the museum where conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner’s manhole cover aligns with the line to get in the museum. Commissioned in 2000 by the Public Art Fund, the cover is one of many that were installed around Union Square, Washington Square Park and other downtown locations through early 2011. Reading ‘In direct line with another and the next,’ the text relates to the city grid and its residents moving though urban spaces together, a theme never more relevant than now.
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Merrily Kerr
Merrily Kerr is an art critic and writer based in New York. For more than 20 years, Merrily has published in international art magazines including Time Out New York, Art on Paper, Flash Art, Art Asia Pacific, Art Review, and Tema Celeste in addition to writing catalogue essays and guest lecturing. Merrily teaches art appreciation at Marymount Manhattan College and has taught for Cooper Union Continuing Education.
For more than a decade Merrily has crafted personalized tours of cultural discovery in New York's galleries and museums for individuals and groups, including corporate tours, collectors, artists, advertising agencies, and student groups from Texas Woman's University, Parsons School of Design, Chicago's Moody Institute, Cooper Union Continuing Education, Hunter College Continuing Education and other institutions. Merrily's tours have been featured in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Sydney Morning Herald and Philadelphia Magazine.
Merrily is licensed by New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs as a tour guide and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA USA)
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