Bragging Rights 2007-08:

Mary K. Connelly

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND VISUAL ARTIST MARY K. CONNELLY'S WORK, HOME, RECENT PAINTINGS, IS EXHIBITED AT THE RUDE GALLERY
MAY 23 – JULY 19, 2008


Opening Reception:  Friday, May 23rd
6:00 – 9:00pm
Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat, 8am–6pm
 


Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design
Rude Gallery
1600 Pierce St.    
Lakewood, CO 80214
 
Rude Gallery on the campus of Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design is dedicated to small works and installation art.  The inaugural exhibition features small-scale interior paintings by Mary K. Connelly.  These small interior works range in size from 6 to 20 inches.   Mary describes her intention as a representational painter “to re-present a space imbued with both longing and emptiness—as a chamber for mediation or contemplation.”

TOPOPHILIA: NEW INTERIORS, WAS EXHIBITED AT CHICAGO'S WOMENMADE GALLERY FEBRUARY 29-MARCH 27, 2008

Topophilia

“And all the spaces of our past memories of solitude, the spaces in which we suffered from solitude, enjoyed, desired and compromised solitude, remain indelible within us, and precisely because the human being wants them to remain so.”
Gaston Bachelard: The Poetics of Space

Inspired by my reading of The Poetics of Space, this current body of work is entitled Topophilia--small paintings of room interiors that convey an intimate sense of “love of place”. I agree with Bachelard’s notion that “the house is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word”. My paintings are a distillation of perception and memory, where color and light convey a world psychologically and spiritually charged. Interior space is presented as a chamber for mediation, evoking memories or daydreams of a beloved solitary place. As home, the interior is fraught with conflicting feelings of entrapment and private repose. Architecture is used in this series as a formal and conceptual devise to represent a tension between the interior and exterior world.  The empty interior can also be viewed as a metaphor for consciousness—a container for my ruminating, restless mind. In the process of creating this work, I have rediscovered the practice of perceptual painting, which allows me to still my mind and transcend “self” through a responsive and empathetic relationship to the visual world. At work in my studio, as observation of “reality” gives rise to thoughts of absence and impermanence, and discovery of the sacredness in the here and now. My work is informed by contemplative and philosophical literature, especially the writings of Thomas Merton, Paul Tillich and Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. The power of illusionist painting is not that it tries to create a “now” reality, but that it can mirror consciousness and embody the paradoxical truths of impermanence and The Eternal Now (Tillich).

 

Assistant Professor and visual artist Mary K. Connelly's exhibition "Interiors and Still Places" was housed at the San Francisco MUSEUM OF MODERN ART ARTISTS GALLERY from January 9-February 1.

Connelly writes, “My recent series of paintings, Interiors & Still Places, are a study of the domestic interior where the familiar notion of ‘home’ is fraught with conflicting feelings of entrapment and private repose. The images are created by a distillation of perception and memory, allowing color and light to convey a world psychologically and spiritually charged. Architectural space serves as a formal and conceptual device to establish boundaries and duality between the interior and exterior worlds. The interior is also a metaphor for my ruminating mind, preoccupied by nostalgia, longing, and loss. In re-presenting a space imbued with intimacy and emptiness, my intention is to offer the viewer a still moment for meditation and contemplation.”
 
Born in 1961, Mary K. Connelly was raised in Belleville, New Jersey.  Graduating with a BFA in Painting from Washington University in St. Louis in 1983, she received her MFA in Painting at Indiana University in Bloomington in 2000. Connelly was recently awarded “First Place” in the 10th International Open 2007 at the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago--she will have a solo show at the gallery in March 2008. Future shows also include solo exhibitions at The San Luis Obispo Art Center in California and the Charleston Heights Art Center in Las Vegas. The artist currently resides in Denver and is an Assistant Professor and Area Head of Painting and Drawing at the University of Colorado Denver.

To see more of Mary's work, please visit www.maryconnelly.com or cam.cudenver.edu/faculty/va/maryconnelly/

Photo above of Mary Connelly: Clinton T. Sander, photographer and alumnus of UC Denver.