Real and virtual space combine in provocative ways in Melissa Brown’s new paintings at Derek Eller Gallery. Inspired by routines that have been upended by the pandemic, Brown pictures include familiar New York haunts like the Met Museum but with digital distortions, and interior scenes that feature screens or mirrors to suggest portals into other worlds. Here, a hand shifts two balls around in front of the window of an empty train overlooking the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset – a frenetic activity in a strangely quiet place. (On view on the Lower East Side through Dec 19th.)
Melissa Brown, Commute, flashe, oil, acrylic on DiBond, 72 x 54 inches, 2020.
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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