Titled ‘Camino’ or ‘Road,’ LA based performance and exhibition artist rafa esparza’s exhibition at Artists Space creates a pathway through the gallery space using blocks of adobe that connect earthen panels painted with portraits of Black and brown working people. Interspersed are paintings of the 110 Freeway in Los Angeles, listed in the US National Register of Historic Places as the first freeway in the western United States. Though esparza’s barefoot subjects literally connect to the land itself, the show considers how individuals and community connections to land have been disrupted by the highways that followed 110 and how customized vehicles (including the bike seen here) have provided a workaround and sense of identity. (On view in Tribeca through Aug 18th).
rafa esparza, Jaime, acrylic on adobe and powder coated steel, painting: 85.5 x 50 x 3 inches, overall: 89 x 50 x 60 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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