Psychedelic Splendor: The Concert Art of AJ Masthay & Helen Kennedy
AJ Masthay (born 1975) and Helen Kennedy (born 1986) independently design and print gig posters for counterculture, rock, and jam bands performing throughout North America. Psychedelic Splendor brings these central Connecticut artists together for their first museum exhibition, featuring more than seventy of their "greatest hits": posters for Black Sabbath, Dave Matthews Band, Dead & Company, Foo Fighters, Goose, The Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam, Phish, and more.
Sponsored by Keith and Jane Mahler, Premier Concerts, and Manic Presents
More about this exhibition
The artists, passionate about both their craft and the music it promotes, embrace the concert poster’s established iconography—skulls and skeletons; swirling lines and bright, saturated colors; moons, stars, and planets—while pushing it beyond expectations, adding fresh ideas with each new gig.
Trained in printmaking at Hartford Art School (BFA, 1997), Masthay opened an eponymous letterpress studio in 2001. He works across printmaking techniques, including lithography, linoleum-block printing, and giclée. Kennedy, who goes by the professional moniker ZazzCorp, is a former art teacher, and since 2018, she has been making gig posters, translating her digital illustrations to screenprints. They are deadheads.
Exhibition Poster:
For their first collaboration together, AJ Masthay and Helen Kennedy (ZazzCorp) designed an exhibition poster for Psychedelic Splendor: The Concert Art of AJ Masthay and Helen Kennedy, available in limited editions on white paper and foil. The design riffs on the iconography of gig posters to create an exhibition poster that incorporates “Easter eggs” for deadheads, art history buffs, Mattatuck Museum regulars, and more. Visitors will have the opportunity to purchase their exclusive commemorative screen-printed poster designed by AJ Masthay and Helen Kennedy. Signed, numbered editions.
Image Credit:
Psychedelic Splendor Exhibition Poster, 2026
By AJ Masthay and Helen Kennedy
Support Provided by: Keith & Jane Mahler, Manic Presents, and Premier Concerts
Admission
$20 Adults
$16 Seniors
$13 College Students (with ID)
$11 Children 6-18
FREE Members (Join now!), Military & Children Under 5
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