Press Release: Robyn O'Neil

New Works: 03.3
11.13.03

New Works: 03.3

November 13, 2003 ?nuary 25, 2004

Jeremy Deller London, England

Kim Jones New York, New York

Robyn O'Neil Houston, Texas

Selected by Laura Hoptman

About the Artist

Born in Omaha, NE in 1977, Robyn O'Neil received her BFA from Texas
A&M University-Commerce, TX in 2000. O'Neil began her graduate studies at
the University of Illinois at Chicago, IL making bold, abstract paintings in
fashionable colors. While struggling to carve out her niche, O'Neil shifted
from painting to drawing?ving colorful brushstrokes for the shaded grays
of pencil lines. She turned, purposefully, from the bold to the seemingly
banal, from a costly medium to one she could work with anytime and
anywhere. It was at this point, in the year 2000, that O'Neil started working
with 10 x 12 inch drawings on paper.

Not only had Robyn O'Neil discovered her medium of choice, but she
also found a subject matter that she would continue to explore. Her father
and his friends became the base model for works that featured small
groupings of men, clad in black sweat suits, captured in minimally articulated
wilderness scenes. While the men seem to be the focus, they appear
curiously unnatural and devoid of human emotions. In Diamond Leruso and
Eddie Koynz (2000) two poker-faced characters ski dangerously close to
craggy rocks; in Wrestlers and Miami Dave (2001) military planes zoom
toward a field dotted by a lonely tree, two wrestlers, and a man doing
calisthenics. What is causing the men to do these things? Why do they seem
so unaware of the dangers around them? Is their world the same as ours?
Rather than answering questions, O'Neil's enigmatic images raise them.

Robyn O'Neil was based in Dallas, TX before moving to Houston, where
she currently lives and works. O'Neil has had solo exhibitions at Clementine
Gallery, New York, NY (2003) and at Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX (2001).
She has been included in group exhibitions at the Dallas Museum of Art, TX
(2003); Mixture Gallery, Houston, TX (2002); and at the Arlington Museum of
Art, TX (2001). Her work can be seen in an upcoming solo exhibition at
Inman Gallery, Houston, TX (2003-2004). The piece O'Neil produced at
ArtPace will be shown in the 2004 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York, NY.

About the Project

Robyn O'Neil's ArtPace residency work, titled Everything that stands will
be at odds with its neighbor, and everything that falls will perish without grace.
(2003), is nearly one hundred times the size of most of her previous
drawings. Composed of three framed panels, this graphite on paper work
spans almost 8 x 13 feet.

The culmination of over a year's worth of research, the piece draws
largely from elements seen in earlier works, rendering them here on a much
grander scale. Bosch-like in its epic nature, Everything that stands· is a
monumental and balanced composition, punctuated by a series of semi-
discrete scenes. Herds of wildlife?on, horses, moose, and deer?lic in
a snowy valley amidst dense lines of bushy trees. Mountains march across
the background as black clouds loom overhead, and airplanes and birds
swarm between the peaks. Odd groupings of men perform actions out of
synch with their surroundings.

But only a few will survive. In this apocalyptic drawing even the
landscape itself is daunting?ting at some unknown impending doom as
its characters jog, stretch, converse, and stray off into the snowy expanse.
Some of the men and animals have already fallen prey to whatever danger
haunts this scene?y lay still, dead or dying in the snow. The drawing's
centerpiece seems celebratory at first, but is instead an awkward formation of
O'Neil's sweat suit clad men encircling an uprooted tree. Five dead owls dot
the same field. As in her other works, these men seem strangely detached
from their surroundings?if they do not recognize the deer and bison in
their midst, or see those who have fallen around them.

With Everything that stands will be at odds with its neighbor, and everything
that falls will perish without grace., Robyn O'Neil has combined the smaller
parts to form a whole and proportionally heightened the sense of danger. It is
no longer just danger, but now a palpable sense of doom. The characters are
placed in the midst of, yet altogether oblivious to, imminent calamity. And
here, it is arguably the worst calamity of all with which O'Neil
contends?th itself.

Exhibition Dates

November 13, 2003 ?nuary 25, 2004

Opening Reception

Thursday, November 13, 6:30-8:30 PM

Artists' Dialogue

Friday, November 14, 6:30-8:00 PM

Featuring Jeremy Deller, Kim Jones, and Robyn O'Neil. Moderated by Laura
Hoptman, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania.

Brown Bag Lunch

Wednesday, December 17, 2003, 12:00-1:00 PM

Join us for a tour of New Works: 03.3 and a brown bag lunch provided by
Pecan Street Deli. Please call ArtPace to make reservations.

Event Locations

All events held at Artpace, 445 N. Main Avenue. Free parking at Flores Street
and Savings. Artpace is open to the public Wednesday thru Sunday, 12-5pm,
Thursday until 8pm and by appointment. There is no charge for
admission.

About ArtPace

ArtPace, A Foundation for Contemporary Art | San Antonio serves as an
advocate for contemporary art and as a catalyst for the creation of significant
art projects. We seek to nurture emerging and established artists and to
provide opportunities for inspiration, experimentation and education. Through
our International Artist-in-Residence Program, we invite nine artists annually
to participate in a two-month residency which supports the evolution of new
ideas in art. Our broad range of panels, lectures, artist talks and studio visits
cultivates diverse audiences for contemporary art and provides a forum for
ongoing dialogue.

445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org