Arch Connelley: Works 1981-1993

January 24 - February 12, 1995

AII dressed up in a sumptu­ous array of baubles, bangles, and beads, the works of  Arch Connelly  are charming essays that keenly probe some aspect of pictorial surfeit. His regular descents into over opulence are so openhanded as to be disarming, and his ebullient manipulation of the faux­jewels, jazzy sequins, and glitter that make up most of his palette is assured enough to carry a weight far beyond that of the materials themselves. Connelly-who died of AIDS in New York City last year and is celebrated here in a memorial retrospective in the state of his birth and training-was an artist who enjoyed operating in the muddy zone between camp and kitsch, always willing to risk excess in order to pursue the kind of goofy elegance he regularly achieved. His assemblages, sculptures, and paintings constitute a wonderful in-joke, imbued with enough cloying artisanry to make his glitter and sequins scintillate with plea­sure.

The rectangle was often too staid to carry his rococo wanderings; more than half of the works shown here are round or oval. Curving edges provide just the added fillip and slight dislocation that invite further embell­ishment. In Perfect Kiss, 198S, Connelly tautly wrapped a circular orb with a sequence of gauzy scarves that coalesce at the center of the piece. He then encrusted parts of the scarves with a dynamic array of faux-pearls of differ­ent sizes-a few dozen of the thousand or more that are in this exhibition­radiating out in erratic rhythms from the center. Connelly's art is not without its wistful and poignant aura, and a kind of fragility of feeling can lie just beneath its thickly bejewelled surfaces. This work, from its title to his subse­quent layering of effusive "riches," bespeaks his effort to render an emotive substance through his manipulation of tacky but oddly sincere materials.

A nother substance Connelly employed was bits of flattened eggshell, which cascade across the surface like manna falling from heaven. His painstaking application of this material onto often monochromatic abstract painting reflected a sensitivity to the delicate nature of the eggshell and with it he created a brittle craquelure. Snow Leopard, 1993, is an ivory-white piece; the slight discolorations among the eggshell bits the residue of a nature Connelly was loathe to suppress, here nearly submerging it within a cocoon of white paint. In his varying responses to his raw materials, Connelly was able to key up or down depending on his sources. His several, extremely busy collages, both spoofmg and indulging in a certain kind of megahunk, gay erotica ( one of these, Local Boy, 1991, appeared on the cover of the November 1991 issue of Artforum), produced a visual onslaught that is characteristic of his work. From the dizzying amplitude of these pieces-and of much of his work-it is clear that for Connelly rampant excess in the pursuit of charm and liveliness was no vice.

—James Yood from Artforum, "Reviews," February 1994.

Events & Programming

Artist Reception

January 24, 7 pm

Exhibition Information

Exhibition Brochure

Exhibition Tour
Illinois State Museum Springfield, IL
November 20, 1994 – January 8, 1995

University Galleries
Illinois State University Normal, Illinois
January 24 – February 12, 1995

University Museum
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL
April  – May, 1996