{"id":632958,"date":"2026-10-17T00:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T00:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632958\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T00:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T00:54:17","slug":"tanya-merrills-animal-instinct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632958\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanya Merrill&#8217;s Animal Instinct"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"gh-article-tag\" href=\"https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/tag\/pocket-review\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pocket Review<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gh-article-excerpt is-body\">After a move upstate and a newborn, Merrill\u2019s new work responds to the world around her. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/author\/gregory-volk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-profile-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GregoryVolk.jpeg\" alt=\"Gregory Volk\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>        <img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_4778.jpg\" alt=\"Tanya Merrill's Animal Instinct\"\/><br \/>\n            Tanya Merrill &#8220;A milking cow at Evelyn&#8217;s dairy&#8221; (2026), oil and graphite on linen (all images Gregory Volk\/Hyperallergic)<\/p>\n<p>Two life-changing experiences lie at the heart of the captivating new oil-and-graphite paintings in Tanya Merrill\u2019s exhibition, Land animal, house animal: The artist gave birth to her daughter in June, and her family recently relocated from New York City to upstate New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In her new environment, Merrill decisively challenges a pervasive anthropocentric worldview that deems humans superior and animals lesser. She foregrounds local animals as sentient beings with their own motivations and desires, including a cat in two terrific paintings, a wide-eyed and inquisitive dairy cow, and the Northern harrier (or marsh hawk) with piercing eyes and luscious gray, white, and black feathers that she frequently observes from her studio (\u201cMarsh hawk,\u201d 2026). This bird painting echoes regional folk art and Audubon. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_5078.jpg\" class=\"kg-image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1438\"  \/>Tanya Merrill &#8220;Horse at night&#8221; (2026), oil and graphite on linen<\/p>\n<p>    Keep reading with your email \u2014 it\u2019s free<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px;\">Create a free account to read more articles each month, and get the best of Hyperallergic in your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>      <a class=\"gh-btn\" data-portal=\"signup\" style=\"color:#00AEEE\">Create free account<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Already have an account? <a data-portal=\"signin\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pocket Review After a move upstate and a newborn, Merrill\u2019s new work responds to the world around her.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-632958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}