Recycled, Reclaimed, Reinvented: the Neon Art of Bill Concannon July 1, 2010

Bay Area-based neon artist Bill Concannon has devoted a lifetime of work to his passion of neon sign making as an art form. The Museum of Neon Art will have on exhibit through October 31, 2010, a 35-year retrospective of Concannon’s neon work called, Recycled, Reclaimed, and Reinvented: The Neon Art of Bill Concannon. Visitors at MONA can explore a range of Concannon’s neon works and interact with his imaginative and playful use of found objects, image, and word play.

Concannon's character as part collector/humorist/mad-scientist/artisan shines throughout his neon artwork, especially in his life-sized installation, called "Bill's Bottle Shop." Modeled similar to a roadside stand, Concannon created a glass sanctuary of vintage glass bottles of all shapes and sizes that reflect light from glowing neon words flickering statements such as "Love and Hate." In reference to our consumeristic culture, Concannon says "for a long time, it's tickled me that glass is at once a very precious (pound per pound) fine art medium and also a thoughtless, throw-away material: no deposit - no return."
Many of Concannon's sculptures also form a narrative collage where he comments about consumerism, politics, and the erotic psyche. Examples are the swirling neon man stuck in a jar with the phrase "Pickled Punk," the GWH Bush as arcade fortune teller with a button to press that switches neon lights from the words "White In Men Power" to "WIMP", or the subliminal erotic installation called "Gump's Peony," "Sausage," and "Hoop," that has neon tubes covered in plastic shopping bags. Concannon comments, "let's face it, on some level neon is trash, or at least comes from a trash culture. One of the few 'reuses' of plastic shopping bags is to hold your garbage. No one loves plastic bags, but when you look at them in this piece they're strangely beautiful."