Chase Contemporary Presents A DANGEROUS IDEA

Chase Contemporary is pleased to announce A Dangerous Idea, its first exhibition with British artists The Connor Brothers. In partnership with British brand Maddox Gallery, the exhibition will be the artists' first solo exhibition in the United States. A Dangerous Idea will be on view from January 31st through March 16th, 2018. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, January 10th, from 6-8pm at 231 10th Ave in the heart of Chelsea, New York.

The exhibition will feature a selection of new works from 2018, including oil on canvas paintings, hand-painted works on paper, editioned collage works, and hand-painted vintage books. The new work is executed in the artists' signature style of witty proverbs superimposed over motifs taken from historical pop culture. One painting incorporates a pithy aphorism, "Truth is weirder than any fiction I've seen," painted over a mostly grey-scale, film noir image. The works are at once cinematic and literary, playful yet sinister, and insightfully relatable.

Best known for their Pulp Fiction series, the pair are also known for their activist work and their playful hoaxes. In 2014 they created a fictional museum, The Hanbury Collection, which fused truth and fiction in such a way as to render it impossible to work out which exhibits were real and which were not. This obsession with truth and fiction can be seen throughout their work, and is particularly relevant in the current climate of fake news, post-truth.

The Connor Brothers is the pseudonym for British artists James Golding and Mike Snelle. The duo came to prominence in 2012 and for several years maintained their anonymity by using a fictional biography. Their identities were revealed in 2014 in a major feature by Mick Brown in The Telegraph magazine, allowing them to undertake more ambitious projects. The Connor Brothers have been amongst the most prominent artistic voices to comment on the refugee crisis, having worked in The Jungle refugee camp in Calais building shelters and on an international billboard campaign, Refuchic, highlighting the plight of displaced people. Closely associated with the Russian activist group Pussy Riot, The Connor Brothers produced their 2015 refugee themed theatrical performance at Banksy's Dismaland. More recently they have teamed up with Professor Green and the mental health charity CALM to raise funds and awareness about the UK's epidemic of male depression and suicide.

The Connor Brothers exhibited internationally in London, Sydney, Dubai, Hong Kong and Berlin, including solo shows at Maddox Gallery and Guy Hepner. Works have been included in major auction houses such as Christie's and Bonhams with a record set at Phillips London in 2018. Major collections include the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Penguin books art collection and the Omer Koc and Niarchos Collections.