Biography

Born in Pittsburgh in 1955, Connelly graduated from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia in 1977 and subsequently spent two years in Germany on fellowship.  In the early 1980s Connelly based himself in New York City where he exhibited regularly and developed a highly inventive style of expressionist painting.  By the mid-1980s Connelly was recognized as a key figure among the New York-based Neo-expressionist painters – alongside artists such Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat – and was collected by major institutions across the United States. In the late 1990s, Connelly returned to Philadelphia where he continues to live and work. Since his early successes, Connelly has been portrayed in film by Martin Scorcese (Nick Nolte’s character in New York Stories (1989) was based on Connelly) and was the subject of an HBO documentary in 2008, which above all captured his discipline and commitment to his craft. In fact, since Connelly’s rise to fame in the 80s, he has had few moments of inertia. As a prodigious painter with a passion for his art, he has amassed a vast collection of canvases, many of which have yet to be exhibited.

Born

Pittsburgh, PA, 1955

Education

1977
Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, B.F.A.

Film Credits

2008
HBO Documentary Film Series, The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not for Sale, Produced and Directed by Jeff Stimmel

1989
New York Stories, Life Lessons, Directed by Martin Scorcese; Featured paintings by Chuck Connelly

1999
A&E Television, BIOGRAPHY. Actor Nick Nolte

Selected Bibliography

Exhibitions Catalogues
Chuck Connelly 12 Steps, Litchfield, Connecticut: New Arts Gallery, 2010
Chuck Connelly Rediscovered, Los Angeles, California: Trigg Ison Fine Art, 2009
Chuck Connelly: East Oak Lane, New York, NY: DFN Gallery, 2007
Chuck Connelly, New York, NY: DFN Gallery, 2005
Chuck Connelly, Washington DC:Galerie L’Enfant, 2001
THE FIGURE Another Side of Modernism, introduction by Olivia Georgia. Staten Island, NY: Snug Harbor Cultural Center, 2000
Page, Judith. Chuck Connelly. New York, NY: Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., 1996
Lieberman, William S. American Narrative Painting and Sculpture: The 1980’s.
From the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Roslyn Harbor, NY: Nassau County Museum of Art, 1991
Chuck Connelly. Introduction by J. Adams, B. Lennon. New York, NY, Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., 1990
Pellizzi, Francesco et al. 1979-1989 American, Italian, Mexican Art from the Collection of Francesco Pellizzi, Hempstead, NY:
Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, 1989
Yau, John. “A Contemporary View of Nature,” Aspects of Nature, Ridgefield, CT: Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, 1986
Diacono, Mario. David Bowes, Michael Byron, Chuck Connelly, McDermott & McGough: The Burning Brush, Boston, MA:
Mario Diacono Gallery, 1986
Chuck Connelly. Statement by the artist, Philadelphia, PA: Locks Gallery, 1985
Becker, Robert. “Chuck Connelly’s Architecture,” Chuck Connelly, New York, NY: Annina Nosei Gallery, 1985

Periodicals

Anderson, John. “Art’s Real Thing Was Never Sold on Success”. The Washington Post, July 6.2008
Slotnik, Daniel E. “For an Artist at Full Speed, Everything Else Just Takes a Back Seat”, The New York Times, July 5,2008
Orden, Erica.  “Back to the Spotlight”, The New York Sun, July 2, 2008
Kreime, Julian. “Chuck Connelly”, Art in America, October 2007
“Philadelphia Freedom”, American Art Collector Review, March 2007
Heller, Karen. “Paint and Life by the gobs”, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22, 2007
“Art.” New York Times, Westchester Section, March 28, 1999 (Reproduction of “The Studio,” 1998)
Bonney, Anne. “Profiles & Positions: Chuck Connelly.”, BOMB, Summer 1991, pp. 32-34
Boyce, Roger. “Chuck Connelly”, Art in America, March 2003, pp. 122-123
Brenson, Michael. “Chuck Connelly”, The New York Times, November 29, 1985
Cohen, Ronny. “Chuck Connelly”, Art Forum, February 1993
Cyphers, Peggy. “Chuck Connelly”, Arts Magazine, January 1991, p. 101
English, Jane. “Chuck Connelly: Lennon, Weinberg”, ARTnews, September 1989, p.184
Gardner, Colin. “The Art Galleries: Chuck Connelly”, Los Angeles Times, January 19, 1986
Gimmelson, Deborah. “Lights, Camera, Art”, Art & Auction, January 1989, pp.112-114
Glueck,Grace. “A Neo-Expressionist Survey that’s Worth a Journey”, The New York Times, July 22, 1984
Gonchar, Joann. “Chuck Connelly”, Cover, March 1995
“Chuck Connelly”, The New York Times, October 12, 1984
Hartney, Eleonore. “Chuck Connelly”, Flash Art, February-March 1986
“Chuck Connelly” at Lennon, Weinberg, Art in America, May 1992, pp. 140-141
Johnson, Ken. “Chuck Connelly” at Lennon, Weinberg, The New York Times, October 11, 2002
Kaplan, Cheryl. “Chuck Connelly” at Lennon, Weinberg, ARTnews, January 2003, p. 122
Larson, Kay. “I Hear America Thinking”, New Yorker Magazine, December 1985
Levin, Kim. “The Familiar and the Sublime”, The Village Voice, September 11, 1984
“Voice Choices: Chuck Connelly”, The Village Voice, December 20, 1994, p.8
“Voice Choices: Chuck Connelly”, The Village Voice, June 4, 1996
Lipson, Karin. “Summer, Clowns and Flesh”, Newsday, July 15, 1994
“Moving Pictures”, New Yorker Magazine, April 24, 1989, p. 86
Low, Charlotte.”Local artists come up big at TMA”, Citizen, Tucson, AZ, 1992
Naves, Mario. “Rumbling with Love”, The New York Observer, October 7, 2002
Newhall, Edith.”Chuck Connelly”, ARTnews, April 1992, p. 120
“Chuck Connelly”, The New Yorker, December 19, 1994
Page, Judith. “Chuck Connelly”, Art Papers, March 1995
Paris Review, Winter 1993, p.12 & table of contents illustration
Raynor, Vivien. “The Door Show”, The New York Times, June 28, 1985
“Chuck Connelly”, The New York Times, April 17, 1987
“Views of Nature on Exhibit at Ridgefield’s Expanded Aldrich”, The New York Times, January 11, 1986, p.30
Regan, Margaret. “The Power of Paint”, The Tucson Weekly, July 1-7, 1992, p. 23
Robinson, Walter. “Chuck Connelly”, Artnet.com, September 2002
Schwabsky, Barry. “Chuck Connelly”, Arts Magazine, February 1986
Servetar, Stuart. “Chuck Connelly”, The New York Press, May 15, 1996
Silverstein, Joel. “Chuck Connelly”, Review Magazine, November 1999
Smith, Roberta. “The Art World Painted in Films”, The New York Times, April 5, 1989, p. C19
Solomon, Deborah. “Back To Nature”, House & Garden Magazine, November 1988, p. 64
Sozanski, Edward J. “On Galleries: Locks Gallery”, The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 31, 1991, p. 5-D
Westfall, Stephen. “Chuck Connelly at Lennon, Weinberg”, Art in America, December 1989, p.171
Yau, John. “Chuck Connelly”, Artforum, March 1986
Zimmer, William. “Gaining Space & Optimism, Two Galleries Head North”, The New York Times, Westchester Section, April 4, 1999

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