Art at Atherton

Featured Exhibit

FAIRY LIGHTS

MEREDITH CONNELLY, CHARLOTTE | 2022

Fascinated by how viewers react to her large-scale illuminated sculptures, local artist Meredith Connelly takes her cues from the natural world. Last year, for Charlotte City Center’s annual “I Heart Rail Trail: Lights,” Connelly was one of seven artists selected to bring their creative ideas to life in the public realm. The artist’s temporary circle of illuminated mushrooms at Atherton proved to be so captivating and engaging for passersby that EDENS commissioned the artist’s first-ever permanent installation.

Comprised of approximately 100 cast fiberglass pieces, Fairy Ring is an architectural form that emerges from the forest floor in the way mushroom arcs occur naturally all over the world—thought of by some cultures and mythologies as portals to another dimension. Each mushroom varies in size and contains internal light that softly diffuses through the fiberglass to create a soft and grounded glow. Will you step inside and create your own story?

Meredith Connelly is a multidisciplinary artist with a Bachelor’s in Studio Art from the University of Wilmington. Connelly illuminates her installations and encases her lighting in manufactured materials to reveal their organic qualities. To further connect and submerge viewers into her glowing environments, she incorporates interactive elements into her works. The artist also creates complex hand-cut paper works reflective of the microscopic world and presses them in transparent materials that parallel microscope slides. Whether creating large-scale experiential works or hand-cutting patterns into sheets of paper, she remains intrigued by the endless possibilities of her materials. She currently resides in the Lake Norman area, where she creates in her studio and lives with her family.