“Secondary Thoughts of Dancing Through Lemon Fields,” 2016.
Drop the wall between what you think you should be seeing, and just see. Just feel. See the crashes of maroon and forest green divided by a red line in “The Field Where I Died.” Feel a sense of sorrow, regret and mourning. See the ink and colored pencil of “Unanticipated Knees” and “Albino Asparagus.” Feel provoked. Feel amused.
That was my experience at multidisciplinary artist Alex Connelly’s exhibit, Spoonfuls of Those Golden Raisins.
The solo exhibition of illustrations and works on canvas opened July 29 and will be on view through Aug. 20 at Drunk Lunch, a design shop and gallery at 807 E. Johnson St.
“I would rather have someone feel love or feel hate about my art than to feel indifference,” Connelly says at his opening reception, speaking above Drake’s “Hotline Bling” as a patron cracks a PBR.
Born and raised in Madison, Connelly, 30, completed his BFA at the University of Vermont in Burlington in 2009 with a focus on photography, painting and mixed media.
Calling his studio an “area of instrument,” Connelly liberates his mind, incorporating unconventional artistic media such as makeup, coffee, mangos and hot chocolate. “I don’t like making work that says what it is — it’s so finite,” Connelly says. “If a person is able to interact with the work, the work can grow.”
Alyssa Taylor, 11-year Madison resident and owner of Drunk Lunch, opened the space in November. She contacted Connelly after viewing his work online.
“This collection surpassed my expectations,” she says. Spoonfuls is Drunk Lunch’s second exhibit in the designated rear space of the shop, fourth total. Exhibits rotate after three weeks. Drunk Lunch is booked through early April.
“We have a specific mission,” Taylor says. “I see the incredible, provocative, contemporary art scene Madison has, and we are trying to push the idea that creativity is creativity. Even if you don’t get it, that doesn’t mean it’s not beneficial.”
