Aspen Art Museum Surveys Arch Connelly's Queer Craft and Correspondence

The Aspen Art Museum in Colorado presents "Straighten Your Wig and Pray," the first museum survey of Arch Connelly, tracking his output from 1980 until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1993. Curated by Stella Bottai and Daniel Merritt with theater director and set designer Fabio Cherstich, the exhibition pairs paintings and sculpture with extensive print and correspondence material. Connelly, who moved from San Francisco to New York in 1980, was associated with the East Village scene alongside David Wojnarowicz and Greer Lankton, a group Arts magazine dubbed the "New Irascibles" in 1985; he showed at the Fun Gallery with Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His practice incorporated faux pearls, glitter, and thrifted materials, blurring high art and queer craft. A commissioned video by Lisa Rovner, drawn from a 1990s interview with writer and Visual AIDS Archive cofounder David Hirsh, accompanies the show. The exhibition argues that Connelly's declaration of making "gay art for gay people," first articulated in his 1980 Pink Manifesto for Artists Space, constitutes a politics in itself, countering readings of his work as apolitical. Archival vitrines reveal correspondence pieces, including a 1974 announcement with feathers, letters in alternating ink colors, and a "correspondence poster" sent to artist Jimmy Wright. The show runs at the Aspen Art Museum.