ARTIST STATEMENT Wilderness Playground: a painted history of the rich landscapes and botanical wonders of the Blackland Prairies of Texas; exploring the transience of its' nature. Each painted botanical portrait affirms the present and forecasts its' passing. Like the fragrant bloom whose scent is swept away with the wind…we equally celebrate and mourn at the brevity. I encourage people to engage and be amazed at the natural world.
Thomas Nozkowski, the prominent NY, American abstract painter, said of Connally's works when he was her art advisor at SMU, "her 'nature abstractions' make the modest into something ambitious and it is her commitment to honor the continuous variability of her experience in nature. Each painting arises from that original experience and she keeps the painting open so anything can happen, while staying true to the original experience."
Connie Connally paints stunning canvases of complex elegance, with imagery that merges harmoniously and nearly completely both representational reference and powerful abstraction. Connally’s poetic colorscapes, with their expressive brushwork, sweeping gestural marks and animated cadence, reflect the artist’s passion for distilling the essence of her observations of nature and situate her work as the vital interplay between memory and imagination. Her palette of organic color and calligraphic brushstroke combine to serve as imprint of the artist’s profound love of being in nature and the desire that her painting reflect both her exterior and interior experience of it.
Citing Joan Mitchell as an important influence on her work, Connally employs exuberant, impassioned colors laid on her canvases in a pictorial strategy that teeters between the action painting of her abstract expressionist forebears and a more refined personal style that modulates the strokes and dabs that comprise her surfaces. Her layers of brushstroke read less as agitated ruptures and more like intuitive, sensual experiences rendered as prismatic atmospheres of color and tone. Rich, multi-layered surfaces of color morph, coalesce and scatter in quietly energetic rhythms that evoke the experience of being surrounded by nature.
Peter Frank, LA Art Critic, writes: "Connie Connally works most clearly with what we recognize as gestural abstraction, associated with Abstract Expressionism. Connally has focused, however, on a notable subset of such gestural painting, one recognized in the heyday of Action Painting and even cited then to Abstract Expressionism with vital precedents (e.g. the late Impressionism of Monet, the early abstractions of Kandinsky). Like such precedents, Connally distinguishes herself as, in essence, a landscape painter, albeit one who paints the landscape she feels as much as she paints the one she sees. Indeed, Connally’s stress on sensuous form and color experience through reference to natural phenomena (in particular vegetation and water, normally in motion) places itself squarely in a tradition particular to the American experience. John Marin’s expansive rhapsodies on the local landscape exemplify this tradition, as does Joan Mitchell’s gradual – but ultimately thorough – adoption of landscape qualities and references. This sort of “plein air abstraction” defines Connally’s work, but her particular touch and palette, and her close and vibrant sense of atmosphere, distinguishes it."
Connally's work has been exhibited extensively across the United States and is included in museum and private collections internationally including The Grace Museum, Longview Museum of Fine Art, San Angleo Museum of Fine Arts, The Art Museum of South Texas and Southern Methodist University.
RESUME
BORN 1952
EDUCATION MFA: Southern Methodist University BFA: Wichita State University (Magna cum Laude) Oklahoma University 1971-1973
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS Billis Williams Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2024 George Billis Gallery LA, Los Angeles, CA 2019-20, 2022 Jack Meier Gallery, Houston, TX 2008, 2017 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2015, 2016 Craighead Green Gallery, Dallas, TX 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011 Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA 2010 Cain Schulte Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2008, 2009 McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX 2007 MMGalleries, San Francisco, CA 2007 Forum Gallery, Dallas, TX 2001, 2002 Outside Views on Art, Dallas Museum of Art 1999 McCormick Gallery, Midland, TX 2002 The American Kennel Club, NY, NY 1999 Anasazi Gallery, Dallas, TX 1997 ERL Originals, Winston-Salem, NC 1997 Southwest Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1996
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2024 Towards a 21 Century Abstraction: Organized traveling exhibition beginning 2021, 2022, 2023 - Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX 2023 - San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX 2022 - Arts Fort Worth, Ft. Worth, TX 2022 - Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR 2021 - Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA 2021 Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA 2012, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021 Art Essex Gallery, NYC Invitational - virtual - 2021 GraySpace Gallery for Lotusland, Santa Barbara, CA 2021 George Billis Gallery LA 2018, 2018 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2013, 2014, 2015 The Loft Galeria, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 2015-19 Wildling Museum of Art & Nature, Solvang, CA 2018, 2020 Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA 2008-2020 The Arts Fund, Santa Barbara, CA 2018 Jane Deering Gallery, Gloucester, MA 2017 Paul Mahder Gallery, Healdsburg, CA, 2017, 2018 McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX 2014 Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX 2013 Atkinson Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA 2012, 2013 Santa Paula Art Museum, Santa Paula, CA 2013 Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Ft. Worth, TX 2012 The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX 2010 Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX 2011 Anderson O’Brien Fine Art, Lincoln, NE 2011-2019 Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA 2010 Hunting Art Prize, Houston, TX 2008 Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, TX 2007 ArtHouse at the Jones Center-AMOA, Austin, TX 2000-2014 Bonhams & Butterfields, San Francisco, CA 2006 Michael Martin Galleries, San Francisco, CA 2006 Pollock Gallery, Dallas, TX 2004 Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS 2001 The Stage Gallery, NY, NY 2001 Pleiades Gallery, NY, NY 2001 Moudy Art Gallery, Ft. Worth, TX 2000, 2001 McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX 2001 The Stage Gallery, NY, NY 2000 Moudy Art Gallery, Ft. Worth, TX 2000 San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA 2000 Visual Arts Alliance, Houston, TX 2000 Loudoun House Gallery, Lexington, KY 2000 Dallas Visual Art Center, Dallas, TX 2000 Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX 1995-1999
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, TX The Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi, TX Longview Museum of Fine Arts, Longview, TX The Grace Museum in Abilene, TX. Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA Wildling Museum of Art & Nature, Solvang, CA Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX The American Kennel Club, NY, NY
GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, AND AWARDS 2013 Honorable Mention, “Small Images,” Atkinson Gallery, SBCC 2012 Art Council Award, “Lift,” Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art 2012 Juror’s Award, “Small Images,” Atkinson Gallery, SBCC 2008 Hunting Art Prize Finalist (Top 5), Sponsored by Hunting PLC, Houston, TX 2004 Katerine Rigsby Dougan Graduate Scholarship, Southern Methodist University 2003 Southern Methodist University, Meadows Graduate Council Grant 2003 Best Portrait Artist in Dallas, “Best of Dallas Awards,” Dallas Observer 2002 Southern Methodist University, Full Scholarship, MFA Program 2001 Juror’s Award, “Biennial Juried Exhibition,” McKinney Avenue Contemporary 2001 Distinguished Art Award, “Ulrich Alumni Exhibition,” Ulrich Museum of Art 2001 Hawn Foundation Award, “2001 Art in the Metroplex,” Texas Christian University
PRESS 2021 Abstraction Moves Forward in Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Independent, by Charles Donelan
2021 Towards a 21st Century Abstraction, LUM ART MAG, by Kit Boise-Cossart
2021 Westmont Exhibition Looks at Current State of Abstraction, Noozhawk. com, by Gerald Carpenter
2021 Westmont Displays Abstract Works, Santa Barbara News-Press, by Dave Mason
2018 The River's Journey, by Leslie Dinaberg, Santa Barbara Seasons Magazine, Spring A River Runs Through Them, by Rebecca Rose, Sun Magazine, February 22-March 1 (featured on the cover) Painting The Santa Ynez River, by Michelle Drown, Santa Barbara Independent Magazine, February 8-15, Vol.32, No. 630 Down By, In and About the River, by Josef Woodard, Scene Magazine, March 23-28 FunkZone May Gallery Exhibits, by Joanne A. Calitri, Montecito Journal, Our Town, May 24-31 Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum, Central Coast Artists Shine in Night & Day, Voice Magazine, June 15
2016 Connie Connally / Place In Time at LewAllen Contemporary, solo exhibit, essay by Ken Marvel
2015 Connie Connally, Sammy Peters / Fusion at LewAllen Contemporary, essay by Ken Marvel Color Play - Primacy Of Color In Contemporary Art at LewAllen Contemporary, essay by Ken Marvel
2013 Now and Then: contrasting Approaches to Key Themes of Modernism at LewAllen Contemporary, essay by Ken Marvel
2013 Art Things, Small and Smaller, The Scene Magazine, by Josef Woodard
2013 Six Rising Stars at LewAllen Contemporary, essay by Ken Marvel
2012 Small Images, The Scene Magazine by Josef Woodard
2012 Lift, The Scene Magazine by Josef Woodard
2010 Life Like Water at Sullivan Goss-An American Gallery, solo exhibit CASA Magazine, by Kerry Methner
2010 100 Grand, An Art Spree for You and Me, The Scene Magazine by Josef Woodward
2009 New Home, New Directions at Craighead Green Gallery, essay by Nance Cohen Israel
2008 Connie Connally / Liquid Line at MMGalleries, solo exhibit SPOTLIGHT, Gallery Guide West
2006 Journey Into Abstraction, Dallas Modern Luxury, by Steve Carter
The Dallas Morning News, Guide, April 7
2004 The Dallas Morning News, Guide, April 2-8
2003 Best of Dallas, Dallas Observer, Volume 23 Issue 39, Annabelle Massey
2002 Finding Your Visual Voice, book, 6 color plates included by Dakota Mitchell and Lee Haroun Forum Gallery, Portraying Identity, Review by David Newman, Gallery Director WSU Fine Arts, Winter
2001 The Wichita Eagle, Friday, December 7, By Bud Norman Face Time, Dallas Observer, by Annabelle Massey The Dallas Morning News Guide, May 18-24 Where Dallas Magazine, March Scene Magazine, January Inside WSU, November
2000 Explorations of the Face, Both Realistic and Fanciful Art Reviews by Helen A Harrison, The New York Times (photo featured my painting) Austin Art Scene by Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman The Met, June The Shocker Magazine, Summer
1999 The Duncan Banner, April 18 Art Talk, June
1996 TWA Ambassador Magazine, May
1993 Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles, March/April
FEATURED ON TV WFAA-TV Noon Day News, July 14, 1997 WFAA-TV Good Morning Texas, June 29, 1995 WFAA-TV Spirit of Texas Evening News, June 25, 1994 WAGA-TV Good Day Atlanta, October 25, 1993
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 1993, 2000-2005 Adjunct Professor of Art, Brookhaven College, Dallas, TX 2002-2004 Teaching Assistant, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 1988-1989 Adjunct Professor of Art, East Texas State University, Commerce, TX 2002 Guest Artist, Brookhaven College, Dallas, TX 2000 Creative Art Center, Dallas, TX