Lot
21
Studio

Oil on linen, 2017

20 x 20 cm
Estimate
$1 650
The painting Studio is one of the first paintings from a series using the studio as a subject. The project started as practice for a project to paint plein air. The studio became the default subject as it is my immediate environment. As the paintings accumulated, the studio became more intriguing as a subject. The initial project to paint plein air fell through, and I was free to continue the studio works and develop them into a double exhibition. The paintings, drawings, sculptures, and watercolours were shown simultaneously at Galeries Roger Bellemare et Christian Lambert and at my studio in 2018.
Biographical note
Michael Merrill was born in Montréal, and has been painting and exhibiting since 1975. He has a diploma from the School of Art and Design of the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. Merrill has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Cologne, Berlin, Paris, and the inaugural Québec Triennial, organized by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 2008. Other exhibitions include Espace/Outer Space and Espace intérieur/Inner Space, at the McClure Gallery and the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, respectively, in the fall of 2011. He participated in the exhibition Builders at the National Gallery of Canada in 2012 and in The Painting Project at Galerie de l’UQAM in 2013. In 2016, he had a solo exhibition of work from the previous four years at Galeries Roger Bellemare et Christian Lambert. Merrill’s works are in various collections, including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Canada, MacLaren Art Centre, Claridge Collection, and Deutsche Bank, and in private collections.