Danese/Corey is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition of work by Connie Fox. The exhibition consists of paintings and works on paper inspired by her decades’ long relationship with an isolated stretch of the East Hampton shore known locally as Sammy’s Beach. Beginning 30 years ago, Fox and her friend Elaine de Kooning regularly frequented this haven of light, land, sea and sky. She still begins each morning absorbing this tidal bay’s enduring spiritual and visual narrative. In her words, “the most significant thing I did at Sammy’s was just to be there. I walked, sat, looked. Most importantly, I swam.” (1) In the series, Fox achieves an eloquent balance between the reality of locale and its existential condition in an intimate, personal vocabulary – an environment filtered through the soul and sensibility of an abstract expressionist.
"It seems clear that Ms. Fox has found common ground between the duality of her reverie in situ and the likeness of it. I mention this because this particular duality — the one between the actual thing and a representation of that thing — is one of the cornerstones of 20th-century American art. The dissonance between the real and its simulation has fueled much of abstract painting as well as a few academic careers, among them that of the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. Back on dry land, Connie Fox, no doubt, isn’t thinking about any of this. She’s in her studio transforming visual memory, viscera, and kinetic energy into subject matter. Her application of paint is direct and unmediated." (2)
Connie Fox was born in 1925 and grew up in Fowler, Colorado in a small farming community surrounded by flat, wide prairies and a distant view of the Rockies. In 1947, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder. From 1947-1949, she attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles. In 1952, she received a Master of Arts from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. In 1979, she established her home and studio in East Hampton, NY. Fox has taught at the University of New Mexico; Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; School of the Chicago Art Institute; and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson. She was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in 1995. She continues to live and work in East Hampton, NY.
---------
(1) Joyce Beckenstein, “Portraits, Issues and Insights: Connie Fox – Reckoning with Rectangles,” Woman’s Art Journal, Spring/Summer 2013.
(2) Janet Goleas, “Connie Fox,” East Hampton Star, July 22, 2010.
