Will Ryman at Chart Gallery

Not many gallery exhibitions are outright funny, but Will Ryman’s latest sculpture at Chart Gallery is bound to have visitors chuckling.  Chock-full of eccentric New York characters crafted roughly in what looks like clay (actually resin), the show includes a platform-shoe wearing senior citizen perched on an NYPD barrier and a couple of noodle-slurping Goths on a subway seat.  Here, in a piece initially conceived of at the time of the sub-prime mortgage crisis in 2008, an exterminator scatters a crowd of mini businessmen.  (On view in Tribeca through Oct 22nd).

Will Ryman, The Exterminator, wood, resin, mesh, paint, screws, hose, plastic, 65 x 105 ½ x 159 ½ inches, ’08 – ’22.

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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)