A series of paintings created for Parcours continues Tanya Merrill's interest in the relationship between humans and the natural world. From the consequential impact of agriculture, to a humorous nod to Goya’s Los caprichos, Merrill plays with conventional definitions of cultural and biological hierarchies, and the portrayal of gender and sexuality represented in nature throughout art history in relation to the current ecological climate.
Quick, dynamic brush strokes add a distinct vivacity and urgency to the works. In this way, Merrill captures the dichotomy of the looming threat of irreversible damage humans have inflicted on the natural world, while making visible the underlying immense magnificence and beauty that continues to supply joy and life. Using The Natural History Museum as a platform provides a context of the works’ own source material and gives additional weight to the call for attention to humans’ place in the environment.
Tanya Merrill’s work invents narratives to examine humanity’s fraught relationship to nature and cultural portrayals of gender and sexuality through her own contemporary lens. Fantastic, consequential, and at times humorous scenes are populated by animals and characters caught amidst moments of introspection, fervor, or mischief. Gesture and movement are punctuated by sketched lines, lending her canvases a sense of effervescence and immediacy. Reinterpreting motifs drawn from throughout art history, Merrill imbues a sense of familiarity to her storytelling as a means to decode 21st century concerns. Symbols and imagery make repeat appearances from one work to the next, building a mythology of personas and environments.
Tanya Merrill was born in New York City in 1987. She received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA from Columbia University. Merrill presented a solo exhibition at 303 Gallery, New York and The Pond Society, Shanghai in 2021, and also a solo exhibition at the Pond Half Gallery, New York in 2020. Recent group exhibitions include Blum and Poe, Los Angeles; Gagosian Gallery, New York; and Clearing, New York. Merrill lives and works in New York City.