LA based artist Kent O’Connor’s paintings of carefully arranged objects are less still lives than just ‘objects on a table,’ explains Mendes Wood DM Gallery, where the artist is also showing portraits, landscapes from a residency in Alberta. The fruit, animal head and bottle in ‘Zebra Between Two Objects’ are carefully chosen and arranged but difficult to connect or interpret; the painting is nevertheless eye-catching for its dramatic lighting and the sense that the zebra is in motion, rearing upward, despite being immobile. The head’s precarious balance– which we’d more likely encounter oriented vertically on a wall, not horizontally as here – along with a placid, almost peaceful expression and the bubblegum pink table frame are unexpected elements that keep the eye moving around this unusual and arresting interior scene. (On view through Aug 5th in Tribeca).
Kent O’Connor, Zebra Between Two Objects, oil on linen, 2022-23.
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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