Born and raised in Mississippi, Alex O’Neal graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the Eighties, his formal education overlapped regular visits with Mississippi African-American self-taught artists, including Mary T. Smith, Luster Willis, and Son Ford Thomas. He later immersed himself in art brut collections in Switzerland, Germany, and France. O’Neal’s drawings and paintings have been shown at The Drawing Center, New York; BRIC, Brooklyn; P.S.122, New York; Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY; Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta; Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville; Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; Centre d’Art des Pénitents Noirs, Aubagne, France; Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans; Chicago Cultural Center; Ecomuseu, Valls d’Aneu, Spain; Amory Arts Center, West Palm Beach, FL; Huntsville Museum of Art, AL; Rockefeller Art Center, SUNY Fredonia; ART LA; Field Projects, New York; and Linda Warren Projects, Chicago. His work is in volumes 16, 38, and 104 of New American Paintings.

O’Neal has been awarded fellowships from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Tennessee Arts Commission, and National Endowment for the Arts. He has been a resident artist at The Studios At MassMoCA: Djerassi Artists Program, Woodside, CA; Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France; Klitgården Refugium, Skagen, Denmark; Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY; Saltonstall Foundation, Ithaca, NY; Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL; Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, Temecula, CA; Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, and Fundacíon Valparaíso and Centre d’Art i Natura, both in Spain.

My mixed media work that presents personal shrines and memorials that refer to places, phrases, and objects that have inspired and idiosyncratically informed me. Wreaths, words made of flowers, shields, badges, sashes, clock faces, alpine thistles, peppermint donuts, and ties, among other things, are in cluttered arrangements and often behind veils and bars that protect and/or jail them. Hovering zigzag forms are simplified migraine auras that create a kind of anxious weather. Commemorations of “Flea Market Superstar,” “Sellout,” “Marion Jail Fan Club,” and “Delta City” are, as banners state, “At Rest” and “Beloved” or have “Opened, Bloomed, Died.”

Within these decorative monuments are totemic, bling-draped Ice Cream Royalty. Personages of sorts, they are crown-wearing, multi-scoop stacked cones, often inhabited by sleepy shrine groupies that hold to disconnected phone receivers or lick at melting, sugary surfaces. Ice Cream Royalty are metaphors for seductive, grandiose awards that artists may feel destined for. The appearance and quirky sentiment of my work are influenced by early American mourning art, a genre that developed in response to the death of George Washington. Mourning themes became more personalized in the watercolors and needleworks of mainly 19th Century school girls and became an important aspect of American folk art. My work is also inspired by African-American self-taught art and European art brut.

ALEX O’NEAL

Born in Starkville, Mississippi 1957 Lives and works in Cooperstown, NY

EDUCATION

School of the Art Institute of Chicago MFA Painting 1985
Rhode Island School of Design BFA Illustration 1979

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016-2017 – Linda Warren Projects, Chicago
2012 – Linda Warren Projects, Chicago
2010 – Center d’Art des Pénitents Noirs, Aubagne, France
2009, 2007- Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago
2005 – WORK IN PROGRESS, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson
2000 – Fayerweather Art Gallery, University of Virginia
1998 – Huntingdon College Art Gallery, Montgomery, AL
– Wright Art Center, Delta State University, Cleveland, MS
1997 – Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville
1994 – Municipal Gallery, Jackson, MS
1989 – Francine Ellman Gallery, Los Angeles
1986 – Illinois Center, Chicago, curated by Dennis Adrian
1984 – Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017 – LOG at LUMP Gallery, Raleigh, NC, curated by Maria Britton
– AWKWARD MOMENTS, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York, NY
2015 – SACRED PLACES, Smithy Center for the Arts, Cooperstown, NY
2014 – MEMENTO MORI, Field Projects, New York, curated by Deborah Brown
– CROWD, curated by Andrea Brown for The Outsider’s Studio Collective, Liberty, NY
2013 – NYFA@GOVERNORS, curated by New York Foundation For The Arts for Governor’s Island Art Fair, New York
2012 – DAY JOB, curated by Nina Katchadourian, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA, and Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
2011 – HEAD CASE, Lesley Heller Workspace, New York, curated by Laurel Farrin
– 30: A BROOKLYN SALON, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY, curated by Elizabeth Ferrer
– CHAIN LETTER, Samsøn Projects, Boston, MA
– NEXT Art Fair, Linda Warren Gallery booth, Merchandise Mart, Chicago
2010 – DAY JOB, The Drawing Center, New York, NY, curated by Nina Katchadourian
2009 – ONCE UPON A TIME AND NOW, Evanston Art Center, IL
– THE HAIRY WHO AND IMAGIST LEGACY IN CONTEMPORARY ART, at ART CHICAGO, Merchandise Mart, curated by Lynne Warren, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
– ART CHICAGO, Linda Warren Gallery booth, Merchandise Mart (Also 2006, 2007, 2008)
2007 – THE MISSISSIPPI STORY, Mississippi Museum of Art
2006/7 – RAGDALE, Chicago Cultural Center, curated by Margaret Hawkins
2006 – SALTONSTALL: THE FIRST TEN YEARS, curated by Andrea Inselmann Herbert Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
– RISD BIENNIAL, Exit Art, New York, NY, curated by Robert Storr
– ARTLA, Linda Warren Gallery Booth, Santa Monica Civic Center, CA
– ART ADORED: Icons from the Permanent Collection, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson

continued

2005 – BRIC PROJECT DIVERSITY, Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2004 – THE MELTING, Rockefeller Arts Center, SUNY Fredonia
– TELL ME A STORY OF A WORLD WITHOUT WORDS, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ
– A SLOW READ, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, curated by Katarina Wong
– SIX NEW YORK ARTISTS, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago
– SEEN & UNSEEN, Broadway Gallery, New York
2003 – ANNUAL JURIED EXHIBITION, Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington
2002 – ART AT STEEPLETOP, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY
2001 – ART CONTEMPORANI DE MUNTANYA, Ecomuseu, Valls d’Aneu, Spain
1999 – LEST WE FORGET, Amory Arts Center, West Palm Beach, FL
1996 – RED CLAY SURVEY BIENNIAL, Huntsville Museum of Art, AL
1995 – CONFESSIONS, Woodruff Arts Center, Atlanta
1994 – ALEX O’NEAL AND JAN HANKINS, P. S. 122, New York
1989 – NEW AMERICAN TALENT, Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX, curated by John Caldwell
1988 – BIGGER THAN A BREADBOX, S.I.T.E., Culver City, California
1987 – FIFTY YEARS OF VISUAL CREATION, Memphis College of Art
1986 – FOUR ARTISTS, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES

2016 – The Studios at MassMoCA/Assets for Artists Residency, North Adams, Massachusetts
– Centre d’Art i Natura Residency, Farrera de Pallars, Spain (Also 1996, 2006, 2010)
2015 – Millay Colony Winter Shakers Residency, Austerlitz, NY
2014 – Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts Residency, Newcastle, Maine
2011 – New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Drawing
2009 – Camargo Foundation Fellowship, Cassis, France
– Byrdcliffe Art Colony Residency, Woodstock, NY
2008 – Ragdale Foundation Residency, Lake Forest, IL (Also 1995)
2004 – Council of Danish Artists, Refugiet Klitgaarden Residency, Skagen, Denmark
– Saltonstall Foundation Residency, Ithaca, NY
2001 – New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Drawing
– Millay Colony for the Arts Residency, Austerlitz, NY
– Dorland Mountain Arts Colony Residency, Temecula, CA (Also 1996, 1999)
2000 – Fundación Valparaíso Residency, Mojácar, Spain
1999 – John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Painting, New York
1998 – Individual Fellowship, Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville
1997 – Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, CA
1995 – Tyrone Guthrie Centre Residency, County Monaghan, Ireland
1987-88 – National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists

VISITING ARTIST POSITIONS

2012 – Immigrant Artists Mentoring Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn
2010 – Art workshops at Centre d’art des Pénitents Noirs, Aubagne, France
2008 – Wampner Visiting Artist, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
2004-6 – Creative Classrooms, New York, Bronx and Manhattan Parochial Schools
2004 – Visiting Artist, State University of New York, Fredonia
2002-4 – Studio-In- A-School, New York, PS15 and PS297, Brooklyn
2002 – Oyster Arts Inc., New York, an organization sponsoring women’s shelters art programs
2000 – Visiting Artist, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
– Visiting Artist, Pace University, New York, NY
1993 – Visiting Artist, University of Memphis, Tennessee
1987-88 – Visiting Artist, University of Arizona, Tucson