Chilean artist Josefina Concha’s textile-based sculptures, now on view at Chelsea’s Praxis Gallery, are immediately intriguing for their color, form and technique as well as their playful engagement with art history. Situated front and center in the gallery is a table covered with undulating fabric, an update on Judy Chicago’s famous Dinner Party installation with a new guest list that includes Concha’s expressive, sewn paintings of Alice Neel, Velasquez and Francis Bacon installed over the table. Elsewhere, a vibrantly colored, minimal panel pays homage to Agnes Martin while these two clustered organic forms recall the open blooms of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings. (On view through June 2nd).
Josefina Concha, Skin Foundations, sewing on canvas, 70 7/8 x 65 3/8 inches, 2023.
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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