Michelle Connolly 'We're All Mad Here'

One of our favourite artists, Michelle Connolly, returns to Tiliqua Tiliqua for another exciting and energetic exhibition.

'I was listening to Tom Wait's song 'We're All Mad Here' and thought this Alice and Wonderland quote from the Cheshire Cat was an appropriate title for a solo exhibition of my quirky character paintings and assembled sculptures.'

More information.

About Michelle Connolly

Michelle is a mixed media painter and sculptor.

Growing up in the UK, art has been a consistent and persistent practice in her life which saw her attend art school and pursue a degree in fine art. Her practice fledged while living in North Carolina, USA where she immersed herself in visionary folk art, primitive and outsider art.

Improvisation, play and the harnessing her own unique authentic raw energy are critical elements of Michelle’s open and organic approach to making. Her work explores the person, the self and her own identity, providing a blissful, almost mystical and magical contentedness and engagement. Her creative process comes from a place of ‘comfortable chaos’ and provides an escape like flow as she immerses herself in her work that delivers a profound satisfaction on completion.

In her studio Michelle develops multiple works simultaneously in a prolific and generous manner that creates order from chaos through intuitive experimentation. As each mark or material is responded to and each work develops it triggers the next to sustain Michelle’s internal dialogue with her work.

Michelle’s assembled sculptural works are often held together with wire that at once binds together and creates their visceral tenderness and vulnerability which is also evident in her two-dimensional works where spontaneous authentic mark making creates characters of human and animal fragility.

Michelle now lives and works in Sydney, Australia.