June 21st – July 04th Pertwee, Anderson & Gold Gallery 15 Bateman Street, Soho London W1D3AQ
‘True Love Stories’ is the Connor Brother’s first solo exhibition. It casts a humorous and penetrating glance at the cynicism surrounding relationships in the digital age. Each painting is simultaneously amusing and disturbing and, as critic Hubert Weinstein points out, ‘when considered as a series, the viewer begins to piece together a perceptive and often scathing portrait of contemporary American culture.’ Weinstein goes on to say that ‘At a time when sensationalism and shock have conspired with commerce to dominate the past two decades of the cultural dialogue (until even the most resilient amongst us are becoming weary) Franklyn and Brendan Connor have emerged to reclaim the barren no-mans-land between artists and the art world and in doing so, offer glimpses of a new and exciting future direction. Best of all, they do it with a wry smile.’
Twins Franklyn and Brendan Connor were brought up within a secretive and highly controversial cult known as ‘The Family’. Born out of the hippy movement in 1968 and founded by David Berg ‘The Family’ was an extreme Christian cult whose members believed in something called ‘The System’.
Other children brought up within the cult include the actors River and Joaquin Phoenix. As children the twins were deprived of access to information from outside of their commune. Without access to mainstream media their knowledge of the world was limited to the teachings and interactions they gained from other cult members. At sixteen the boys turned their backs on The Family and ran away from home. After several years riding the freight trains they settled in the Brooklyn area of New York.
Having been starved of information for so many years Franklyn and Brendan were initially overwhelmed by the outside world but soon developed an insatiable curiosity and a remarkable appetite to learn. They developed a system whereby each of them would read, watch and discover things independently and then share them with one another via a series of notebooks and sketchpads. This interaction developed into making art together, a process they describe as ‘trying to make sense of the world.’ Their often-humorous work is steeped in references to both historical and popular culture and presents an almost anthropological view of contemporary western society.
Now in their early twenties the twins split their time between New York and Missouri.
www.pertweeandersongold.com
