Reynald Connolly intentionally distanced himself from formal teachings by instead developing his skills alongside practising artists. He participated in live art happenings with Serge Lemoyne at Montreal’s Clock Tower Quay and has illustrated the writings of marginal poets. He began his career represented by the prestigious Galerie Gilles Corbeil, gradually exhibiting his work at prominent events and locations, including the Basel Biennale (1975), the Tokyo International Art Salon (1990), the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris (1990), the Biennale d’Issy in Paris (1999), the Musée du Québec (1997), the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2002), the Galerie Loto-Québec (2006 and 2009) and the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides (2008). Though known primarily as a painter, he also practises drawing, collage and photography. His sculptures express the same exuberance shown in L’oracle “Minnie” prophétisant sur la chute de l’empire, a kind of baroque stele (on which the words de MEMORIAL were written) made from wood, steel, slate, porcelain, copper, tar, bronze and a plastic Minnie figurine. The piece was made in 2005 for the Sculpture Symposium of Saint-Faustin-Lac-Carré.
SEE:
« Sculpt Words and Language, Place Words in Space » by Serge Fisette, ESPACE #78, p. 10.
