Alumna Tanya Merrill '18 is featured in her first solo show at 303 Gallery in Manhattan. This exhibition is on view until December 16, 2021.
In this new selection of paintings, Merrill imagines an alternate timeline for the natural world by incorporating mythology, creation stories, science, agriculture, and the planet’s eventual demise. These paintings act as warnings, especially the series incorporating the ash tree in which the foliage goes from healthy to dead. In the natural world we see our histories but also our tumultuous present and unsure future.
According to the press release, “the artist utilizes art historical reference in aid of her premonition, reflecting on the evidence of human intervention in the record of painting through nods to Balthus, van Dyck, Constable and others.” This dialogue with great masters of painting lends her work credibility and by extension offers her interpretation of our climate crisis legitimacy as well.