Kevin Connolly Gillespie (°1975, Johannesburg, South Africa) makes paintings and drawings. By using popular environmental themes, Gillespie creates with daily, recognizable elements, an unprecedented situation in which the viewer is confronted with the conditioning of their own perception and has to evaluate their position.
His paintings are based on formal associations which open a unique poetic vein. Multilayered images arise in which the fragility and instability of our seemingly certain reality is questioned. With a conceptual approach, he tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations.
His works directly respond to the surrounding environment and uses everyday experiences from the artist as a starting point. Often these are framed instances that would go unnoticed in their original context. By choosing mainly formal solutions, he touches various overlapping themes and strategies. Several reoccurring subject matter can be recognized, such as the relation with popular culture and media, working with repetition, provocation and the investigation of the process of expectations.
His works often refers to pop, mass culture and environmentalism. Using iconography, an image where light-hearted ness masks stark truths. By using global cultural narratives, he tries to approach a wide scale of subjects in a multi-layered way, likes to involve the viewer in a way that is playful and believes in the idea of function following form in a work.
His work urge us to renegotiate painting as being part of a reactive, commenting on impending themes in our contemporary society. Kevin Connolly Gillespie currently lives and works in NYC.
SOLO EXHIBITS
2020 Barsky Gallery, Hoboken, NJ
2019 Ghosts of out Future, Kustera Projects Red Hook, Brooklyn ,NY
1997 BMW Gallery Cape Town, South Africa
1999 Cafe Cammisa Cape Town, South Africa
GROUP EXHIBITS
2022 Rockefeller Center The Flag Project, Only One Earth, New York, NY
2021 Kate Oh Gallery Towards the Light, New york, NY
2019 KFAA International Exchange Exhibition, Boo Sung Art Center, Seol, Korea
2018 Salon of small works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA
2017 Salon of small works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA
Pop up Gallery, Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, Hampton NY
2016 Salon of small works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA
Exquisite Corps group show, Morean Arts center, St. Petersburg, FL
BRIC, Open Call group show (Up For Debate), Brooklyn, NY
Macaya Gallery, Gold Rush, group show, Miami, FL
Art Palm Beach, Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, FL
2015 Macaya Gallery Miami, FL
Castle Fitzjohns Gallery, LES, NY
Market Art and Design, Barsky Gallery, Hamptons, NY
2014 Artprize Grand Rapids, Michigan
New York Tibetan Art Studio presents: New Voices Group show, Brooklyn NY
Rox Gallery Polish, group show, LES NY
