142,500,000$ (Bacon) Lust of CurrencyTrina Merry
Photography - Archival Pigment print
In her series 'Lust of Currency', American artist Trina Merry re-interprets over 50 masterpiece paintings by iconic artists including Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, and Francis Bacon - questioning how art is evaluated: historical significance, popularity or price tag? By camouflaging models into the most expensive paintings ever sold, Merry queries the people who are influencing art in this new economy and the role of the artist today. Each painting, which Merry creates using the trompe l'oeil technique, has been renamed by their astronomical selling price.
"I created 'Lust of Currency' as a means to reflect on today's art world, and how our most famous paintings are being used as commodities to be sold, bought or traded by a rarefied audience," said Merry. "Some of our greatest pieces of art are better known by their auction price, which is a telling sign that societal, political and economic forces have greatly impacted our culture.'“ -says Merry.
Trina Merry
Born in 1980 in Seattle, Merry is a leading bodypainter in the generation that emerged in the wake of influence of Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, and Verushka. Merry studied with Robert Wilson and Marina Abromovich as a Watermill Center Summer Participant, creating 5 living bodypaint installations on site. There she absorbed their unique attention to space, silence in stillness and transported these applications in her work to the chaotic neon streets of New York and subsequently, the world. She has also studied with Alex and Allyson Grey intensively on “Visionary Art” and the “Light Body”. She has crafted her own visual and conceptual vocabulary that emerged through her focus on the points of juxtaposition between the organic human form and the phallic hard lines of architecture.
Merry is a World Champion bodypainter (World Bodypaint Festival 2014) who exhibited at the Whitney Museum (MPA: View in Red and 2016-7 Whitney Biennia), Edward Hopper House (“Small Matters of Great Importance”), and recently had a sold out solo exhibition at Con Artist Gallery (“Lust of Currency”). Current exhibitions include “Line” at Attleboro Arts Museum (MA).
Photography - Archival Pigment print
In her series 'Lust of Currency', American artist Trina Merry re-interprets over 50 masterpiece paintings by iconic artists including Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, and Francis Bacon - questioning how art is evaluated: historical significance, popularity or price tag? By camouflaging models into the most expensive paintings ever sold, Merry queries the people who are influencing art in this new economy and the role of the artist today. Each painting, which Merry creates using the trompe l'oeil technique, has been renamed by their astronomical selling price.
"I created 'Lust of Currency' as a means to reflect on today's art world, and how our most famous paintings are being used as commodities to be sold, bought or traded by a rarefied audience," said Merry. "Some of our greatest pieces of art are better known by their auction price, which is a telling sign that societal, political and economic forces have greatly impacted our culture.'“ -says Merry.
Trina Merry
Born in 1980 in Seattle, Merry is a leading bodypainter in the generation that emerged in the wake of influence of Yves Klein, Yayoi Kusama, and Verushka. Merry studied with Robert Wilson and Marina Abromovich as a Watermill Center Summer Participant, creating 5 living bodypaint installations on site. There she absorbed their unique attention to space, silence in stillness and transported these applications in her work to the chaotic neon streets of New York and subsequently, the world. She has also studied with Alex and Allyson Grey intensively on “Visionary Art” and the “Light Body”. She has crafted her own visual and conceptual vocabulary that emerged through her focus on the points of juxtaposition between the organic human form and the phallic hard lines of architecture.
Merry is a World Champion bodypainter (World Bodypaint Festival 2014) who exhibited at the Whitney Museum (MPA: View in Red and 2016-7 Whitney Biennia), Edward Hopper House (“Small Matters of Great Importance”), and recently had a sold out solo exhibition at Con Artist Gallery (“Lust of Currency”). Current exhibitions include “Line” at Attleboro Arts Museum (MA).
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