Jaclyn Conley

Jaclyn Conley (b. 1979) was born in Ontario, Canada, and is now based in New Haven, CT. Conley has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including The Painting Center, NY, NurtureArt, NY, Projective City, Paris, Wynick-Tuck Gallery, Toronto, and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield CT. Inspired by historical events, departing from a photograph or a painting, Conley’s work connects key social and political concerns of our time with a sense of pictorial beauty. Through the use of collages and thick brushstrokes, Conley plays with the materiality to convey a story. The features and figures in the artist’s work are...

Inspired by historical events, departing from a photograph or a painting, Conley’s work connects key social and political concerns of our time with a sense of pictorial beauty. Through the use of collages and thick brushstrokes, Conley plays with the materiality to convey a story. The features and figures in the artist’s work are defied and disrupted by a painterly ambiguity, building on her interpretation of the source image. What stands out in Conley’s work is this materiality in relation to the indexicality of the departing photograph. Where the photograph is an evidence of reality, the painting through its materiality and its disrupted faceless figures contribute to a certain abstraction. Additionally, there is a certain gesture and textuality present which is opposed to the flatness and documentary evidence of the initial photograph, encouraging the viewer to connect with the painting and leaving him to question the story behind it.

The artist develops her creations by using acrylic paint and collages. Through this painting collage technique, she brings together things that already exist in different context to make something new, she changes the composition and how parts of the picture move in space. If a work doesn’t seem right to her, she will cut it in pieces and use them for future collage paintings. Thus, constantly renewing her ideas and her creations to transform them into unique paintings. Her approach is also striking in the sense that it is strongly linked to an extensive research work. Visiting libraries, museums and archives across the United States, Conley puts a lot of importance into her research. This part of her practice leads her to spend the day scanning archives of beautiful Kodachrome photographs.

Conley’s work based on historical, cultural and religious facts, is not only unique in its technique but also in the content of the subject she approaches. Often focusing on social happenings related to our rights and freedoms incorporating religious and cultural references, Conley through her paintings communicate with her public and in this way, her works acquires a historical value.

While her brushstrokes and techniques are reminiscent of the new American painters of the sixties such as William de Kooning, thematically her work is inscribed in a postmodern painting posture. It is notably one of the artist’s important features, which makes her work exclusive to have this ability to connect past events to present ones in her paintings while adding a sense of aesthetic.

"For Conley, there is no single element greater than the composition itself. Conley’s paintings have a point of entry for all, but to me she is the consummate painter’s painter. There are mysteries in her work set aside for her kinsman in craft. Her work implores me to remember the material beauty of paint itself." — Titus Kaphar

Conley has been an artist in residence at NXTHVN, the Vermont Studio Center and The Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver Canada. Conley has received grants including a Connecticut Office of the Arts Fellowship, Canada Council for the Arts Visual Arts Project Grants, an Elizabeth Greenshields Award and a Fellowship from the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation. Her work has been reviewed and featured in numerous publications including The New York Times, Canadian Art, Border Crossings, and New American Painting.