LONDON.- Following the successful launch of their new online initiative featuring British artist Jelly Green,
Branch Arts are Introducing… American artist, Alex Merritt, in advance of his inaugural London exhibition in 2021. Merritt brings an element of urgency and vigor to his painting that culminates in large-scale oils often depicting isolated figures within wide, seemingly everyday landscapes. Alongside a selection of new paintings, Branch Arts is presenting a number of Merritt’s hypnotic drawing. From 19 November Merritt features on Branch Arts’ new online platform as their second Featured Artist, with works for sale, insights into his studio practice and more. This online exhibition follows a month-long Dialogue between Merritt and the previous featured artist, Jelly Green.
Alex Merritt was born in 1981 in Washington DC, and began painting in his late 20s, having been introduced to art due to its therapeutic qualities for mental health. Very soon both he and those around him realized that being a painter was his natural calling. Since his first solo exhibition in New York, Merritt’s works have been acquired by multiple private collections worldwide including the liana Goor Museum in Tel Aviv, Israel.
A running theme throughout Merritt’s work is that of the lone figure – distorted, but present. Social and emotional disharmonies permeate his work as Merritt is not afraid to address the dichotomy of life, encapsulating the haunting beauty and anguish of the human condition in his signature style of evocative brushstrokes, carved paint, and scratched graphite.
In keeping with Branch Arts’ commitment to helping their artists to support the causes they love, they are delighted to be supporting Merritt with a donation going to The Navajo Water Project, a community-led charity working to bring clean, hot and cold running water into the Navajo Families that need it the most.
Dialogue: Jelly Green x Alex Merritt
Dialogue is an artist-led platform for the sharing of ideas, motivations and practice, via discussions and recorded conversation, held at a moment of virtual exchange as one artist closes a show and another prepares to open.
Between September and October 2020, Jelly Green and Alex Merritt have been in conversation through email, video calling and text, discussing their own experiences of trans-Atlantic lockdowns; their intimate relationship with painting and studio practice; and the strange political turmoil the world faces in the lead up to the USA presidential elections, giving viewers a unique insight into the hearts and minds of these brilliant talents.
Artist Pages
Alongside a rolling roster of artists whose work they sell as part of their new online initiative, Branch Arts presents four featured artists each year as part of ‘Introducing…’, launched in September 2020 in response to the challenging global landscape brought about by COVID-19. Branch Arts designed their online selling platform to further support the artists they have worked with over the years, as well as to showcase talent new to them and their clients. These pages, presented in a dynamic, online magazine format, provide curated explorations of the artists’ working practice that include in-studio interviews and a taster selection of new works for sale as a precursor to a pop-up solo exhibition in central London.
Working collaboratively with artists over a collective 40 years between them, the Branch Arts team offer a fresh, new model for artist representation. Working together with both galleries and individual artists, they are able to curate exhibitions and produce a finely tuned, bespoke online profile for each artist they represent. By inviting artists to use the platform to promote a cause they care about, Branch Arts will be supporting a number of charities throughout the year. Continuing the Branch Arts ethos to support good causes, they pledge to donate 10% of all sales made and foster a culture of engagement and support across the arts and the charity sector.
