Cynthia Connolly Explained

Cynthia Connolly
Birth Name:Cynthia Anne Connolly
Birth Date:1964
Birth Place:Los Angeles, California, United States
Field:photography, letterpress printing, art, curation
Awards:National Endowment for the Arts Grant (2003). National Endowment for the Arts Grant (2017)
Website:http://www.cynthiaconnolly.com/

Cynthia Connolly (born 1964) is an American photographer, curator, graphic designer, and artist.

Career

Connolly graduated from Corcoran College of Art and Design.[1] She worked for Dischord Records and d.c. space in Washington, DC.[2] In 1988, she published Banned in DC: Photos and Anecdotes From the DC Punk Underground (79–85) through her small press Sun Dog Propaganda.[3] The book was compiled with Sharon Cheslow and Leslie Clague. Banned in DC documented the early hardcore punk scene in Washington, DC, including bands like Bad Brains and Minor Threat.

One of Connolly's most well-known works is the album art for Out of Step, the 1983 LP by hardcore punk band Minor Threat.[4] The cover art shows a black crayon-drawn sheep, with his eyes wide open, leaping away from a group of white water-colored sheep. The black sheep has become a symbol for Dischord Records and the label's punk movement; it is widely copied as tattoo art.[5] In a 2015 interview with music blog Dangerous Minds, Connolly said about the sketch:

Minor Threat had asked me to make a drawing for the Out of Step cover. Ian Mackaye and I discussed something to do with a black sheep. The obvious idea was a black sheep that was leaping away from all the white sheep. The black sheep symbolized all of us, the kids that were doing something different, going against the grain of what was going on at the time.  I thought of us as young and energetic. I was just 19 when I drew the sheep, I think. I was young and energetic! It was 1983.
Since the mid-1990s, Connolly has exhibited her photography of musicians, landscapes, and found objects. She is a key exemplar of what has come to be known as the “punk aesthetic,” making art from the same D.I.Y. "do it yourself" principles that characterized the punk rock music movement of the late 1970s and 1980s.[6] In addition to traditional art galleries, Connolly has showcased her work in ad hoc art spaces, such as warehouses, bars, vacant buildings, squats and people's homes. She letterpresses her own promotional posters and postcards.

In 2002, she participated in the Rural Studio Program of Auburn University in Newbern, Alabama. There, she won a National Endowment for the Arts grant with the Alabama State Council on the Arts to build a vegetable stand utilizing an art medium called "hogwire" by Alabama folk artist, Butch Anthony, as gates for the stand, and incorporating art by other Alabama artists in the project. She published photographs from her Alabama residency in the book The Rural Studio Bonus Album.[7] Connolly's Alabama photo collection has been shown in four main solo exhibitions as well as group gallery shows, including Transformer Gallery, Auburn University's Rural Studio, SUNY Purchase, amongst others.

Her photographic series of "Ice Machines", and her postcards, books and the cover artwork for Minor Threat's "Out of Step" EP were featured in an art exhibition Beautiful Losers, reviewed in Art in America. [8] Connolly collaborated with Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth on the 2004 book Lengths & Breaths, with her photography illustrating Ranaldo's text.[9]

The work exhibited at Civilian Art projects in 2012 made its way to the collection of the J Paul Getty Museum in her home town of Los Angeles, California.[10] [11]

Cynthia Connolly continues to exhibit her photography and create ephemeral objects using her letterpress and photographs. She is the Special Projects Curator for Arlington County, Virginia.[12] [13] Her work with Arlington County and the Arlington Art Truck earned a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2017 and was nominated for the Robert E. Gard Award from Americans for the Arts in 2019.[14]

Publications

Books

Collections

Connolly's photographs, books, and ephemeral art are archived in museums and libraries internationally.

Collections list

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Cynthia Connolly - Resume. Connolly. Cynthia. 2018. Cynthia Connolly - Official Website. May 19, 2020.
  2. Book: Andersen. Mark. Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital. Jenkins. Mark. Akashic Books. 2009. 978-1-933354-99-6. https://web.archive.org/web/20120922004557/http://www.akashicbooks.com/danceofdaysreissue.htm. 2012-09-22.
  3. Web site: Sun Dog Propaganda SDP01b - Banned in DC. 2020. Dischord Records. May 19, 2020.
  4. Web site: Minor Threat's Iconic 'Out of Step' LP Cover. Bickel. Christopher. July 13, 2015. Dangerous Minds. May 19, 2020.
  5. Book: Hannon, Sharon M.. Punks: A Guide to American Subculture. Greenwood Press. 2010. 978-0-313-36456-3.
  6. Web site: Shooting Rock: Cynthia Connolly's Punk Photography. Maffeo. Lois. May 6, 1999. The Stranger. en. 2020-05-25.
  7. Book: Connolly, Cynthia. The Rural Studio Bonus Album. Sun Dog Propaganda. 2003. 0-9620944-1-2.
  8. Web site: Cynthia Connolly - Beautiful Losers. June 28, 2005. Raw Footage Film Archive. May 19, 2020.
  9. Web site: Books: Lengths & Breaths. Cynthia Connolly - Official Website. May 19, 2020.
  10. News: An Artist Finds a Little Bit of Los Angeles Everywhere. Capps. Kriston. Bloomberg. 8 January 2015 . en. 2020-05-25.
  11. Web site: The Ever-Evolving Art of Cynthia Connolly. Washington City Paper. 27 December 2018. en. 2020-05-25.
  12. Web site: From Dischord Records to Art Truck, Arlington hones cutting-edge arts trek. Augenstein. Neil. 2018-04-05. WTOP. en. 2020-05-25.
  13. Web site: Arlington Art Truck • Whurk Magazine. Estes. Lindley. 2018. whurk.org. 2020-05-25.
  14. Web site: Arlington Art Truck. 2020. Arlington County, VA. May 19, 2020. April 27, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200427212549/https://arts.arlingtonva.us/arlington-art-truck/. dead.
  15. Web site: 30 years later, groundbreaking book 'Banned in DC' still reverberates. 2018-12-10. WTOP. en. 2020-05-22.
  16. Book: Connolly, Cynthia. Banned in DC: Photos and Anecdotes from the DC Punk Underground (79-85). Sun Dog Propaganda. 1988–2015. 978-0-9620944-0-8.
  17. Web site: Books: East To West. www.cynthiaconnolly.com. 2020-05-21.
  18. Book: Ranaldo, Lee.. Lengths & Breaths. 2004. Water Row Press. 0-934953-79-1. Sudbury. 54046739.
  19. Web site: Book Signing at Arcana, 6/20/15: BRYAN RAY TURCOTTE: FUCKED UP + PHOTOCOPIED FUCKED UP +: THE READER CYNTHIA CONNOLLY: BANNED IN DC (NEW EDITION) NEW DEADBEAT CLUB PRESS 'ZINE: BIG LOTS. June 20, 2015. Arcana Books. May 22, 2020.
  20. Web site: Stories from the Island of Big Sur, California. www.cynthiaconnolly.com. 2020-05-21.
  21. Web site: Cynthia Connolly (American, born 1964) (Getty Museum). The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles. en. 2020-05-19.
  22. Web site: Big Lots / Cynthia Connolly. National Museum of Women in the Arts. May 22, 2020.
  23. Web site: Collections - Cynthia Connolly. Smithsonian National Museum of American History. May 19, 2020.
  24. Web site: DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Announces 2012 Additions to Art Bank Collection dcarts. dcarts.dc.gov. 2020-05-19. 2017-02-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20170210035039/https://dcarts.dc.gov/release/dc-commission-arts-and-humanities-announces-2012-additions-art-bank-collection. dead.
  25. News: Jenkins. Mark. 2015-11-06. In the galleries: Where did all the humans go?. en-US. Washington Post. 2020-05-19. 0190-8286.
  26. Book: Connolly, Cynthia. East to west. 2004. en. 785836868.
  27. Web site: Another World Charity Postcard Sale curated by Tracey Emin and her studio. deutschewealth.com. 2020-05-19.
  28. Book: Banned in DC: photos and anecdotes from the DC punk underground (79-85). 1988. Sun Dog Propaganda. 978-0-9620944-0-8. Connolly. Cynthia. 1st. Washington, DC. ocm19676507. Clague. Leslie. Cheslow. Sharon. Indie Photobook Library/Larissa Leclair Collection (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library).
  29. Web site: DC Punk Archive. 2014-05-27. District of Columbia Public Library. en. 2020-05-19.
  30. Web site: PDS SSO. catalog.umd.edu. 2020-05-21.
  31. Book: Connolly. Cynthia. Columbia Pike recipes for you: a community book art project, Arlington VA. Mazumdar. Sushmita. 2016. en. 1015249521.

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