The Connor Brothers: A Need for Distraction at Hancock Gallery

Hancock Gallery is excited to present ‘A Need For Distraction,’ a collection of artwork by artist duo, The Connor Brothers.

The Connor Brothers work blends truth and fiction which can delight and disorientate their audience in equal measure. Each interaction with their paintings plays with emotion, teases reality and fulfils in us all, the need for distraction.

American twin brothers Brendan and Franklyn Connor were raised as children within a pseudo-Christian cult known as The Family whose leader, David Berg, preached and practiced a fanatical, perverse form of Christianity. At the age of 16, the brothers fled ‘The Family’ and escaped to New York where their new found freedom allowed them to explore their surroundings and share their discoveries. Their notebooks and sketchpads were their main source of coping mechanism, allowing them to slowly come to terms with their new life. It was by this process that The Connor Brothers began creating their artworks together.

The pair are best known for their ongoing series of collages and mixed media paintings featuring a variety of Mills and Boon inspired characters, vintage pin-up beauties and Hollywood starlets in seductive poses. The images are paired with captions quoting Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, and George Bernard Shaw, exuding a dark and dry sense of humour and social commentary.

In 2014 it was revealed that The Connor Brothers backstory was actually a fabrication, a pseudonym created by the British artist pairing of Mike Snelle and James Golding. The revelation of the identity of the famous brothers has seen a huge increase in sales recently, with their works having been sold alongside the such legends as Banksy and Damien Hirst.