I Wanted To Be An Actor, But I Could Never Remember My Lines.

Exhibition in conjunction with my book release at Show Gallery, Los Angeles, 2022.

Donnelly has spent over a decade collecting stories and moments that have shaped his purview since arriving in Los Angeles in 2009 to present day, sourced from movie memorabilia stores, head shops, souvenir shops, newsstands, and book stores on Hollywood Blvd. The result is a rich and provocative reflection with recognizable public artifacts that juxtapose celebrity scandals, politics and pop culture moments to paint a larger portrait of Donnelly’s appreciation and criticism of local life. In “Hollywood Forever,” re-appropriated framed film stills, headshots and postcards are presented juxtapositions of an ode to the celebrities of present day and yesteryear. A large, production-style wall collage titled “Hollywood Babylon,”(a title used as an homage to Kenneth Anger’s books about scandal and death in Hollywood) found photos, tabloids, headshots, newspaper clippings, movie stills and other paraphernalia turn into narrative conceits that paint a picture of a tragic, drug addled, desperate, dark and humorous side of Hollywood culture. A culture Donnelly attempted to navigate himself as a young transplant to LosAngeles trying to make it in entertainment.