Celeste Rapone’s dynamic paintings at Marianne Boesky Gallery create interest through the distortions of their mostly female central figures. Viewers must first make sense of twisting limbs, then take in story-suggesting details which here include cough drop wrappers, a weed and a parking ticket at the bottom on the canvas. Dressed in a pink track suit, the woman here appears to be an over-enthusiastic volunteer, digging a cavernous hole for a tiny oak sapling, all while somehow simultaneously standing in the hole and balancing on tippy-toe on a skinny wrought iron fence. Interested in how women can ‘occupy impossible positions’ both literally and metaphorically, Rapone manifests complicated mental states in physical form. (On view through June 11th).
Celeste Rapone, Muscle for Hire, oil on canvas, 67 x 67 inches, 2022.
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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