One artist’s love affair with Philadelphia is being reflected through a brilliant body of work during his latest solo exhibition. Will your view of the city’s popular attractions change through “Reveries”?
For over 40 years, the lights, sounds, air, and landscape of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have fascinated and inspired the works of painter Patrick Connors. He works largely en plein air, and Connors’ paintings call to mind such luminaries as Canaletto, with his affection for Venetian views, and Turner’s affair with London.
On April 5, Connors opened a stunning solo exhibition at Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia that “represents a yearlong engagement with clear, shimmering, or obscured light poking through leaden airs that reveal, enshroud, or hide the landscape,” the artist says. “Encroaching shadows and dark skies are addressed, as are the cyclical flourishing, decline, and bareness of the trees and terrain. Not so much records of circumstance; but, rather, contemplations on the delight and vitality of life, and its mystery.”
Gross McCleaf adds, “With his smaller works, Connors experiences a direct and immediate response to the light, space, and evocations of place. His large paintings expand upon his initial on site inspirations and his desire to capture a felt moment in a constantly moving and shifting reality. Preserving and communicating the ‘fleeting’ through the long and sustained process of crafting a painting is quite a challenge.”
“Reveries” will be on view through April 28. To learn more, visit Gross McCleaf Gallery.
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