Tim Merrett takes possession of art history as his creative birthright, unabashedly appropriating images from past masters and bringing them into tension with contemporary experience. Past and present exist in tandem on his canvases, taking art historical images, by Vermeer, for example, and inserting them as “resting places” within areas of bold color or texture.

 

The historical image is thus squeezed between contemporary bookending realities represented on the canvas by fields of paint, found metals or photographs. The resulting totality challenges our perception of time, where “then” and “now” are locked into a relationship we ourselves, as viewers, must balance.