Robyn O'Neil

Robyn O'Neil was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1977.[3] She lives and works in Los Angeles, California.[3] She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Texas A&M University-Commerce, continuing with studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, King's College London, and Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School, Los Angeles.[3]

O’Neil is known for her detailed narrative drawings that often contain art historical references and center on a theme of existential bleakness and absurdity.[4][1] Traditionally, her monochromatic drawings have depicted "apocalyptic" scenes in which small human figures engage in acts of violence and trauma.[1] Art critic Christopher French has noted of the artist's practice, "Inventing realities rather than describing aspects of nature, O'Neil's dreamlike vistas offer a potent combination of incorporated graphite collage elements so as to inject foreground detail into ambiguous and otherwise largely unmarked middle distances."[5]

Despite the dark nature of her work, positive signs for the future of life and humanity abound.[6] Susan Harris wrote for Art in America that the "[s]oft, velvety passages of shading; painstaking and lovingly articulated rhythms of line; and the implication of the artist's own hand and arm in gestures both small and grand are palpable evocations of the will to make something out of nothing. . ."[6]

O'Neil has held solo museum exhibitions at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem; the Des Moines Art Center; and, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, which traveled to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.[3] She has participated in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; The Kemper Museum, Kansas City; and, the Dallas Museum of Art.[3] Drawings by O'Neil were included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2004 Whitney Biennial.[3] Her work is included in the public collections of the Menil Collection, Houston; Whitney Museum of American Art; Blanton Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Art; John Michael Kohler Arts Center; The Kemper Museum; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Sheldon Museum of Art, Omaha; Des Moines Art Center; and, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.[3]

In 2010, O'Neil received a FRAMEWORKS Grant from the Irish Film Board for a film written and directed by her titled “WE, THE MASSES,” which was conceived at Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School.[7] She was featured alongside author John Green on PBS Digital Studios' The Art Assignment in 2014.[8] A recent monograph of her work, Robyn O’Neil: 20 Years of Drawings, was published by Archon Projects in 2017.[9]

The artist is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery, New York; Talley Dunn Gallery, Dallas; and, Western Exhibitions, Chicago.[3][10][11]

• Hugg, Hillery (November–December 2008). "'I can't stress enough how important it is to choose ...'". The Believer. 6 (9): 63–68.

• www.robynoneil.com