Robyn O’Neil’s imagined landscapes, precisely drawn graphite, investigate evolution, apocalypse, natural disaster and extinction with imagery that is surreal—separated from the flow of time. Ominous clouds and landmasses, monks, ears, mysterious female figures, faceless busts and other enigmatic characters float over craggy and rolling landscapes. The subjects are illuminated by strange, almost heraldic light cast through mystical clouds, calling to mind Pre-Renaissance painting. Personal narratives are embedded in the symbolism and suggested in the titles, without ever divulging the full story. Disembodied heads and silhouettes of ghosts populate the newest drawings, something, she says, that has to do with hallucinations and memory. “Not only are these shadow images conjuring up the people I mourn, I’m also referencing and celebrating the very origins of art-making with this new work. These are my cave paintings.”
Robyn O’Neil’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at major institutions, including at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska; and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, Washington. In fall 2019, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth presented a twenty-year survey featuring the artist’s acclaimed film, WE, THE MASSES, which she conceived of at Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School in Los Angeles. She has been included in many prestigious group museum exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Dallas Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. O’Neil is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, an Artadia grant, and the Hunting Prize. O’Neil (born 1977, Omaha, NE) received her BFA from Texas A&M Commerce and she currently lives and works in northern Washington State. She also hosts the popular podcast, “Me Reading Stuff.”