Clyde Conwell
˚º•Born in the Adirondacks of NY, but rooted in North Carolina, I am an interdisciplinary artist using oil painting as my foundation from which I conceptually integrate & experiment with additional mediums, like performance, sound, sculpture, & writing. The canvas is an ecological site connecting the body & mind to place. Through improvisation & notational communication (symbolism, my own visual language, &/or mark making based upon language) I flirt in the liminality between abstraction & representation. My art practice reframes painting as a post-language tool not limited to derivatives of what we see, but intervenes how we process our purpose & being alive.
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Initially, I was a rambler. Long winds energized ten years of participation in DIY queer punk communities. My movement, to over ten cities, sparked collaboration & organization of creative projects & music performances across the USA from 2006-2018. I played guitar & vocally fronted various bands. I lyrically prioritized equitable accessibility, queer visibility, and questioned the nuance of power & care. Songwriting mirrors the mechanics of my painting–intuitively building structure, reflecting upon experiences, & somatically in tune with a desire to create space for belonging. Issues of identity, embodiment, relationality, & power dynamics continue to course through my art practice. At twenty-eight, after a five week tour, I acknowledged my mental & physical state demanded change. The movement of my tempo slowed. I transitioned; serendipitously through studying forestry to be a more versatile woodworker, back to painting.
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A canvas is always subjective. I center painting as the original screen [-], akin to tech screens–television, computer, or cellphone, and thus a mirror. >|l|< Here, the personal enters the context of the painting’s cyclical nature of assigning value & power in a trajectory of reinforcing ideological belief through image. Simultaneously the canvas acts as a prosthesis of the self and thus |l|> our projections. A projection is a distortion hiding–agendas, personal motivation, defences–distractions away from ourselves. I lean into my aversions and moments of confusion for direction in my projects. I am building and unpacking a trajectory to uncover the psychological dissonance contemporary culture has forced upon us & the blocks we create ourselves. As I change, I capture the meaning of that change and what it looks like to experience transformation. I believe art is capable of reimagining, deepening, & improving our understanding of the world, while the screens of this age are not designed to be transformative, they are marketed as tools, but perpetuate addiction to manipulate, control, disenfranchise, & influence. I am intrigued by an image’s ability to psychologically carry collective, individual, & cultural meaning, but the global use of digital screens is projecting that clarity of image = truth, which to me is a distraction from the point of perception & seeing. I create spaces for complexity, layers, and our perpetual other.
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_\\*//_ My historic commitment to community & accessibility is reflected in an eclectic exhibition record from regional museums & international group shows to public interventions, self-organized events, & community art spaces. I collaborated in events & exhibitions at the Tanya Leighton in Los Angeles, CA & Berlin, DE, Marcia Wood Gallery (Atlanta, GA), Cucalorus Film Festival (Wilmington, NC), Cameron Art Museum (Wilmington, NC), B-Complex (Atlanta, GA), 130 Gallery at WCU (Cullowhee, NC), North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, NC), L/A Arts (Lewiston, ME), & Elsewhere Living Museum & Artist Residency (Greensboro, NC). I founded and organized the art collective, snakes4gardens, in Athens, GA from 2018-2020. I earned a BA in Studio Art from Bard College, graduated from Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Germany studying with Monika Baer & I hold an MFA from the University of Georgia. ((/))*
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Contact for pricing, intrigue, and query at clydeconwell@gmail.com