Kent Merriman Jr.

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Kent Merriman Jr., “Box 1,” oil and acrylic on canvas

73.5” x 53” (photo courtesy of Bel Ami, Los Angeles)

Although the Glenbow’s website for Kent Merriman’s second solo Calgary exhibition this year tells you there are 10 paintings in this show, you’ll be forgiven if you can’t spot them all. 

Having seen Merriman’s winter project at TrépanierBaer, I know he has the talent and conceptual prowess to shapeshift materials and conjure the suspension of disbelief. So arriving at the Glenbow in search of what’s fresh in One New Work, a series curated by Nancy Tousley, I am flummoxed when I see only nine works.

Centred in the gallery are four, shin-high stanchions in a square: a single wire prevents you from walking over three, dirty, flattened cardboard boxes. The uppermost is stamped with a Cobra logo.

In reality, this is a snake charmer in a wrestling ring, wringing your senses into believing nothing but waste is laid before your eyes. Watching another visitor enter the space and ask the security guard if this is part of the exhibition is all part of the art. (And, yes, the guard does his job well, explaining that the cardboard – distressed signage and all – is actually paint on canvas.)

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Kent Merriman Jr., “Deplorable Armour,” 2015

oil, acrylic, loose wire, metal brackets, burlap and chainlink on canvas, 57” x 47” x 4” (photo courtesy of Bel Ami, Los Angeles)

So what to make of all this? Given that trompe l’oeil painting (deceiving, or trick of the eye) has been a construct for centuries, discerning gallery-goers will seek an evolution in the art historical canon. Beyond aesthetic seduction, should we be thinking about photo-realism or hyper-realism to locate critical value?

Digging deeper, it’s worth considering that artists such as Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Ron Mueck and Mary Pratt – all renowned super-realist artists – are known invariably for depictions of the living. Yet Merriman’s focus is on waste and detritus. And while some pieces include real props, like the chain link fence in Deplorable Armour, its windblown garbage is painted.

Conceptually, then, instead of being offered portraits or convincing scenes of life, we are offered life-like objects that are, in fact, consistently inert. It’s this twist, combined with Merriman’s reliance more on painting than sculpting per se, that has me finding value between his art and how we see, package, or offer peeps into our lives. 

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Kent Merriman Jr.,“Peepshow,” 2015

oil, acrylic, neon and grommet on canvas, acrylic covering, 57” x 42.5” x 4.8” (photo courtesy of Bel Ami, Los Angeles)

I’m also drawn to the full title of the exhibition, One New Work, Kent Merriman Jr.: Remnants. The artist has the last word as evidence for what we should be looking for in everyone’s ongoing body of life’s work. The left-behind wrapping, materials of existence and discarded residue are telling clues for an artful syntax, lending meaning and structure to our own life sentences.

Before I leave the gallery, I make one more effort to find the tenth work mentioned on the Glenbow’s website. For some people, the innocuous Ziploc bag, a mirage of acrylic paint, might be passed by were it not in a vitrine … but that only makes nine works.

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Kent Merriman Jr., “Remnants,” 2019

installation view (courtesy Glenbow Museum, Calgary)

So I ask the security guard for a tip on the whereabouts of the final painting; even showing him the web reference on my phone. He counts. I count. We both recount and then I return to my spot in the corner of the gallery, musing if the stanchions or even the carpet could be the missing link. 

Eventually, the guard returns, holding the gallery brochure, and pointing to the list of works: there are, in fact, only nine paintings according to the printed matter. Who and what to believe? And, more notably, what’s at stake … are we prisoners of our self-perception, perhaps? ■

Kent Merriman Jr.: Remnants is on view at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary from June 29 to Sept. 21, 2019.

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