Conner Calhoun, Like a fog holds the light
LUMP is proud to present the solo exhibition of Conner Calhoun – Like a Fog Holds the Light, a presentation of new paintings and drawings. Spanning many different themes and ideas Conner’s work mostly uses the self as a means to explore the psychological interior. Pushing the figure beyond its physical limits, setting it out on symbolic tasks, and contorting it into labyrinthine knots, ambiguous narratives unfurl, exploring the complex psychologies of recovery, grief, longing and desperation with humor and irreverence as a retainer of hope.
In newer paintings, the self turns a corner, enters another room and there’s a darkness that is as abrupt as relapse. The walls feel like shrouds that are moving, gently carrying gradients of light from one corner to the next, it feels oceanic, or like a crystal moving through a space that has a far off light source. Within these low contrast interiors, dimly lit figures and objects begin to emit their own lights, they wander around these closed off spaces like anchorites. Wordless scrolls. Handless clocks. When the space has deconstructed its own light, language and time is raptured, like a flower blooming inside out. We ourselves dive deeper and deeper into the self-cavern where we learn how to speak inside out. Light becomes more physical than our skeleton, it kisses us on the forehead, and whispers a sweet-myth out of our ear.
Bio:
Conner Calhoun (B.1993) Currently lives and works in Winston-Salem N.C. He received a BFA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts (NYC) in 2015 and a MFA in Studio Art at UNCG in 2023. They are a queer artist and curator based in North Carolina. Their most recent curatorial project is SLUG (Chapel Hill, NC), a project space by and for queer people of the South. They worked as a Projects Coordinator at LUMP gallery (Raleigh NC) from 2017-2020. In 2016 they were the artist in residence at Leipzig International Artist Residency (DEU). In 2019 They were the artist in residence at Obracadobra (Oax, MX). Their most recent solo exhibition was All Jokes Aside at Greensboro Project Space (NC) in 2023.
