Based on vintage Bacardi rum ads and travel brochures, Puerto Rican artist Enoc Perez’s paintings of his home country at Harper’s Gallery feature pristine beaches, bright blue pools and abundant tropical vegetation. Created in a painting style akin to printmaking, for which the artist rubs paint onto canvas using an oil coated sheet of paper and a pencil, the details of each supposed paradise are rendered slightly indistinct. Titled ‘Stockholm Syndrome,’ the paintings revel in an abundance of natural beauty yet withhold a richer appreciation of it, forcing the question of how much of each image is just marketing. (On view in Chelsea through Nov 11th).
Enoc Perez, View of San Juan, P.R., oil on linen, 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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