When he had a son in the 90s, Puerto Rico-born artist Pepon Osorio started thinking of how to raise him without perpetuating unwanted ideas about masculinity. This consideration (and a commission from Real Art Ways in Connecticut) led the artist to create the multi-media installation ‘No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop,’ now on view at the New Museum in a solo survey show presenting Osorio’s work from the 90s to today. Originally installed in a working-class Puerto Rican neighborhood in Hartford, CT, the installation sprang from community conversations identifying barber shops as places where “…ideas surrounding machismo are formed and performed in Latinx culture from generation to generation.” Overwhelming in its decorative detail, the recreated barbershop builds a powerful and absorbingly complex picture of male identity formation from the influence of actors, sports heroes and other public figures to the car culture alluded to in wall-mounted hubcaps. (On view through Sept 17th).
Pepon Osorio, installation view of ‘No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop (En la barberia no se llora), mixed mediums and video installation, 1994.
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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