Connor
Dolan
Statement
Two paintings creating neurotoxins by touching each other, water forming realistic images made of steam, beautiful pigments created from failed HIV treatments, wet paintings sealed in gas to stop them from drying: I create these objects and processes because I am tired of but still obsessed with painting. Often centered on bizarre technical details that I learn, my work draws on materials that have only existed for the last sliver of painting's long history. I am particularly interested in how objects that are often seen as dangerous—industrial chemicals, biological processes, or fragile materials—can be repurposed as image-making tools just like more common media such as charcoal and ochre pigments.
I constantly attempt to escape my training as an oil painter, but never truly let go. My practice increasingly focuses on developing new material systems that produce images through physical processes beyond typical mark-making and paint-mixing. The majority of these industrial treatments I work with are still applied with a classical paintbrush, however exotic the material on the bristles may be. The concept of painting is integral to the ideas I work with, not just something to slap on top. I build things that allow phenomena like condensation and chemical reactions to generate images over time. Many materials are archival, some are not—giving aspects of pieces an actual lifespan. Both natural and unnatural, part of them die and part of them live on—like bone and implants left behind after the flesh has rotted away.
Biography
Connor Dolan (b. 1998, Miami, FL) is an artist residing in South Florida after studying at Washington University in St. Louis. Trained as an oil painter yet increasingly at odds with that inheritance, he builds material systems from industrial chemicals, biological processes, and other regulated substances, communicating frequently with government agencies, defense contractors, and overseas suppliers to obtain them. Through paintings that generate their own images—via condensation, chemical reaction, and slow decay—he sets materials barely a century old against a painting tradition stretching back millennia, producing work that is equal parts alive and dying.
CV
Connor Dolan
Born in 1998, Miami, FL. USA. Lives and works in Miami.
EDUCATION
2023
B.F.A. Washington University in St. Louis, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, St. Louis MO
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025
Self Portrait With Two Deceased Siblings, Touché Boutique, Miami FL
2024
HOT WET AMERICAN PAINTING, Tunnel Projects, Miami FL
2022
Three Cubic Feet of Stone, Blood, and Meat, MONACO, St. Louis MO
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026
The Undoing, Miami Design District and Antonio Urrutia Art, Miami FL
Material, Material World, David Castillo, Miami FL
2024
Body & Spirit, Spinello Projects, Miami FL
Meditations on Waking Up, Miami Design District, Miami FL
dissolved, Tunnel Projects, Miami FL
2023
SOFT SHELL, Los Angeles CA
GOBSMACKED, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis MO
Women in Philosophy: Power and Prominence, Wilson Hall, St. Louis MO
2022
Cyborg Environmentalism, Sapien Gallery, Kansas City MO
2021
Bilingual: Abstract and Figurative, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis MO
Zero Empty Spaces Gallery (Gulfstream), Hallandale FL
Only Briefly, Forest Park, St. Louis MO
Stay Back, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis MO
2019
Provocative Art Show, Tedd’s ART Works, Wilton Manors FL
Stonewall Pride Kickoff Party, The Manor, Wilton Manors FL
2017
Lauderdale Yacht Club Art Show, Ft. Lauderdale FL
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2023
Hazel H. Huntsinger Memorial Prize in Painting, St. Louis MO
2022
International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Achievement In Contemporary Sculpture Award
(Honorable Mention), Hamilton NJ
Residency Project's Artist Retreat @ 1303, Silverton CO
2019
Best in Show, Tedd's ART Works, Wilton Manors FL
PRESS
2026
New American Paintings: South Issue
Miami Herald: How an ‘ugly’ underground garage in Little Havana became Miami’s buzziest art hub
2025
Miami New Times: The Best Art Shows to See in Miami, December 2025
2024
Miami Herald: ‘Suffocated self-portraits,’ satire and spooky theater: October arts in Miami
Miami Herald: ‘We shouldn’t be suffering.’ Miami’s artists can’t find affordable studio space
Miami New Times: Here’s Your Guide to Miami Art Shows in October 2024
Walker Art Center: Seeing Invisible Systems: Connor Dolan in conversation with Molly M. Pearson
2023
2022
Sculpture Magazine (print)