New Frequency – Opening Reception @ Chestnut Hill Gallery

The show opens October 8 and runs through October 31 and will also showcase two long-time Connelly friends: Ted Victoria and Mark Glista, whose works complement the vision. Much of Connelly’s work focuses on images of waves or strokes across the canvas repeated horizontally, forming a random rhythm that can refer to emotion, energy, progress, time, sound, light, or speed. Undulating lines and patterns of energy have run through great art throughout the centuries, and it was Connelly’s desire to bring this idea through as the subject of the work rather than in a subliminal, subconscious context.

Connelly will also include his new silhouette paintings, which represent people who have passed on and energies that have disappeared; and a collection of bird portraits meant to represent the spirits of another world, among other works. A simple three-dimensional spiral by Glista and surreal light sculptures that question what is real and what is not by Victoria harmonize with this fascinating concept.

Frequency is a natural theme for Connelly, whose own life could be seen as a line that goes up and down from the highs of his fame in the decadent eighties to the lows of the deep and destructive alcoholism that followed. After 17 years of concentrated and self-imposed isolation, he became sober in 2010 and has remained so. The work of Mr. Connelly, whose peers included Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat, has grown even more intense and personal after so many years of reevaluation, and this show ushers in a new sense of redemption and forgiveness.