Sean Connaughty

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"5"

April 19 at Gallery Co

5-9pm 400 first ave N
Mpls MN

"5" | Media List

April 19 at Gallery Co
5-9pm 400 first ave N
Mpls MN

Reviews

Sean Connaughty takes a thoughtful conceptual approach to the intersection of natural form and cultural tropes, using ink, photo, sculpture, words, and whatever else comes to hand.
five local contemporary artists: Sean Connaughty, Clea Felien, Celeste Nelms, Ben Olson, and Melissa Stang
Reception Date: Thursday April 19, 5-9:00 p.m.
Exhibition Dates: April 12 to May 25
Hours: Monday –Friday 10:00 to 5:00 and by appt.
Gallery co, 400 First Ave North, Suite 210
Minneapolis, MN, 55401
612.332.5252 www.galleryco.net
Free and Open to the public

contact: Kathleen Day-Coen
612-747-6466
additional info:
Gallery co is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, 5. The show opens on April 12 and a public reception will be held on Thursday, April 19 from 5-9:00 p.m. As implied by the title, the exhibition features five artists, all based in the Twin Cities, who investigate the power and machinations of contemporary society using the image of the human figure. Through technically and stylistically diverse practices, Sean Connaughty, Clea Felien, Celeste Nelms, Ben Olson, and Melissa Stang construct familiar, but often, uneasy vignettes of life in the 21st century. Personal or detached, routine or exotic, these works, at their core, explore the human condition – our attempt to communicate, create, consume and conquer in the world around us.

All are painters except Nelms, whose toned gelatin silver photographs depict premeditated tableaux featuring the artist as protagonist “engaging” with found, manmade objects in natural, outdoor settings. With these objects, collected from yard sales and thrift stores, Nelms fabricates a new personal, albeit personal identity. For example, a small, plastic “Hulk” action-figure becomes an object of desire in an operatic scenario where Nelms takes on the persona of a life-size Hulk.

Felien’s sketchy, expressionistic paintings on paper counter the specificity of Nelms images. Figures carrying out routine activities seem disoriented by their surroundings: Feline places them at the edges or uncomfortably at the center of the white page, signaling a psychological and emotional dislocation. For Feline, these are portraits, not of physical form, but of the complicated human psyche. Gestural and distorted, her figures are inhabited by an impermanency that reflects the unpredictability of contemporary society.

Connaughty’s oil on panel paintings depict a true, disconcerting narrative of astronauts lost in space. Eerie, anonymous, even threatening, these dreamlike images of faceless, helmeted figures in protective space suits, envision the aftermath of a doomed, privately funded, 1992 spaceflight where the ship disappeared. Coded transmissions received in 2006 by astronomers, which are believed to be sent by the lost astronauts, are the source of the Connaughty’s work that can be considered a metaphorical nexus between humanity’s unending ambition and its potential for failure.

Stang’s graphic, illustrative works on paper capture the banal but infuriating experience of our attempts to communicate in the age of technology, whether it is with a financial institution, airline or credit card company. Executed with an economy of line, these works strike at the essence of our technology driven lives, where the blurring of public and private realms is often uninvited. Stang’s images, in their simplicity, convey our unsettling endeavors, and failures to interact.

Olson’s expressionistic paintings on panel depict a single subject, the relationship between the artist and his wife, Emma. Executed with a cinematic quality, the paintings track the public and private interactions of the two, making the viewer, the voyeur. Animated, but grounded in the protagonists’ daily activities, Olson’s paintings, with their emotional specificity and expressive brushstroke, are variously the heir to late 19th century French Realism painters, early 20th century German Expressionists, and even of the 1960s’ French Nouveau Réalism artists.

Collectively, the work in 5 provides an unorthodox but, perhaps, accurate perspective on the contemporary human condition. Each individual body of work reveals we are our own peculiar collaborator, even enemy in life, but, also, that we are our only salvation.
(Mason Riddle)

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http://blog.myspace.com/seanconnaughty

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