jimmy o'neal
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"My paintings ARE mirrors - they reflect the person looking at it, they're in real time and they're always changing." | Jimmy O' Neal
Jimmy O’Neal, a classically trained painter, continually explores and expands the physical and metaphorical capabilities of the medium. Through his work he creates experiences that call forth the universal impulses of the human condition that exist underneath the surface of our consciousness. He strives to represent the unseen visual poetry of the frequencies that surround and interact with our senses. His interest in physics, science, and biology led him to develop such technological innovations as mirrored paint, which is used in the creation of large-scale paintings that are intended to envelop the viewer. He further examines science and the body in such artworks as “brain machine,” a device that produces paintings generated from the artist's EEG readings in response to external stimuli.
O’Neal has exhibited in galleries and museums such as the The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, and the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art. He received his BFA in Illustration and his MFA in painting from Savannah College of Art and Design. His work has been commissioned by private and public institutions such as the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. O’Neal is a successful public artist that has created works for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia; the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS); and the Hanes Brands Theatre, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Most recently his public work Seven Cymatic Sonata for CATS was recognized as one of the 50 best Public Art Commissions in 2012 by The Public Art Network, a program of the Americans for the Arts.
The opulent showmanship of Jimmy O'Neal pushes the envelope of pictorial expectation to a point requiring modification of our descriptive vocabulary. His is Information Age art seeking and finding new beauty in our image-bombarded world. It is the hip and confident art of a young artist working in a brash American vein.
At the same time, his is a vision that embraces the breadth and depth of our collective cultural mythologies, independent of traditional time/space parameters. O'Neal seeks to document an individuated experience of the constant flow of consciousness. To do so, he captures "real-time" signifiers of multi-dimensional realities and provides us glimpses into the universal Gnosis - our inner knowing of that we cannot consciously articulate.
Harnessing skills gained from a rigorous classical training, and utilizing traditional materials augmented through scientific advancement, O'Neal forces a new respect for the time-honored tradition of painting. Seizing from the ethers archetypal icons of myth and legend, O'Neal's seductive painting reawakens within us a profound memory of mankind's highest aspirations.
artist BIO
EDUCATION
MFA, Painting Savannah College of Art and Design, 2016
BFA, 1989 Illustration Savannah College of Art and Design, 1989
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
Jimmy O'Neal - solo exhibition: "Adrift Within A Long Loving Look", Bill Lowe Gallery. Atlanta, GA
2016
Jimmy O’Neal exhibition: “What Essence Was It, That Time Was Of”, SCAD. Savannah, GA
Jimmy O’Neal: Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2015
Jimmy O’Neal: LA International Art Fair
2014
"Ahamkala", Tennis Courts at Black Mountain College. Black Mountain NC
2012
"Paradisio", Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2011
Lucifren Fading, Studio installation, Alexander, NC
2009
Siddhartha-vision of Sweet-Feed, Installation and Public Performance, Madison Arts Council, Marshall NC
2008
Qualia, The Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2006
Shock and Awe, The Dangerfield Home, Hollywood, CA
2005
Trumpets Gallore, The Bill Lowe Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
Angel Web, The Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
2004
Primacy of Movement, The Joie Lassiter Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2002
Jimmy O'Neal: "Speculum", Van Every Gallery, Davidson College, Davidson, NC
2000
Decade, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
1999
Jimmy O'Neal: Indifferent Staves, Choreography Experiment, Carolina Theater, Charlotte, NC
Bid for Life, The Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA
O'Neal: Time Machines, Hero Space, Performance, Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBTIONS
2015
i feel ya: SCAD + André 3000 Benjamin, Savannah College of Art and Design Museum, Savannah GA
2014
i feel ya: SCAD + André 3000 Benjamin, Art Basel Miami, Mana Miami Wynwood, Miami FL
2013
"The Things We Know: Seven Conceptual Artist", The Upstairs Art Space, Tryon NC
2010
Graphic Abstraction, Sympathetic Magic, Moot Gallery, Hong Kong
2007
Transporting Location, Rebecca Parker and Jimmy O’Neal, Dumbo Art Festival, Brooklyn NY
Make it New, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville NC.
Cross Currents II, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte NC
2005
Cross Currents, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC.
Group exhibition. Activating Space, Installation of EEG painting machine, Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, Jacksonville, FL
2004
The Domino Effect, The Santa Fe Art Institute, Sante Fe, NM
Twitch, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
2003
Painting4, Ingrid Calame, Katharina Grosse, Michael Lin, Jimmy O'Neal, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Home Grown, SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art), Winston Salem, NC.
Holographic Glances, SGF Atlanta, GA
Rites of Passage, Tenth Annual Art Exhibition at TrizecHahn, Charlotte, NC
VISITING ARTIST/RESIDENCIES
2013
Lincoln Center Institute International Educator Workshop, University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
2012
The Intersections Project: Artist in Residence Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Selected artist for in high school artist residency program, Winston-Salem, NC
CONFERENCES
TEDxKatuah - Jimmy O'Neal - The Artistic Journey Of Discovery, Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
PROFESSIONAL
2016
Pod Scale Consultant for Legends Hospitality, Super Bowl XVI
2015
Teaching internship at SCAD, Summer
Museum Internship Black Mountain College Museum
Design Consultant for Legends Hospitality, One World Observatory
2014-2015
Commission for interior design and construction of the merchandise dome for Marvel Experience
2009-2013
Visiting artist and lecturer, Warren Wilson College
2005-2010
Creative Consultant for Little and Associates Architects
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Beautiful Mind of Jimmy O'Neal, Enter the boundless world of an innovative artist. Cover story By Carroll Leggett, WNC magazine. 2003
Outer limits and local monuments,A triumph for Brandeis, By Christopher Millis, The Phoenix, Boston Mass.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ART COMMISSIONS
Golden Goal, The Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta Ga. 2017
Seven Mirrors, 14 Super/Villain Heroes, Legends, The Marvel Experience: The World’s First
Hyper-Reality Tour, Phoenix AZ, Dallas TX, San Diego CA, Philadelphia PA. 2014-15
Jimmy O'Neal: The O.V. Project, Little Italy Peninsula Art Center, Mt.Holly, NC. The Andreas
Bechtler Collection, The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, NC, 2000 - 2015
ULU OVATA , inmar Corporation, Winston-Salem, NC. , 2014
511.95 Hz of wine, Black Mountain College Museum, Asheville NC. 2013
"Seven Cymatic Sonatas", Art-in-Transit Commission, Charlotte Area Transit System, North
Davidson Bus Facilities, Charlotte, NC. 2012
Pie Fight, Jay Turner Private Commission for Tonya Dean, Winston- Salem, NC, 2011
Reactants, HanesBrands Theatre Lobby Wall, Winston-Salem Arts Council Commission, MiltonRhodes Center for the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC, 2009
Bird in a Bell Again, design stipend for, Mural Arts Program Commission, Philadelphia International Airport Project, Philadelphia, PA, 2007
The Nine Muses, Entrance, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Commission, Atlanta, GA
Revolangels, The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, NC, 2007
Fountain/Seven Waters, Johnston Development Group Commission, Greenville, SC, 2006
This & That, Painting Installation, Santorini Hotel, Greece, 2006
"Virtually Infinite", Purchased by Yo Marketing Group Sponsor, Tryon Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC.
"You Are Here", Charlotte Transportation, Tryon Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC
"Media Throne", The Fox Network, Tryon Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, NC. 2001 (Chairs on Parade commissions, purchased by sponsors, temporary public art)
AWARDS
Nomination for a Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, 2013
The Annual Year in Review Award, Public Art Network, American for the Arts. 2012
Wheels on the Bus in 7 Cymatic Sonatas, a public artwork commissioned by Charlotte Area
Transit System, has been named as one of the 50 best public art projects in the 2012 Public Art
Network Year in Review by Americans for the Arts. AFTA is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education. The annual Year in Review program recognizes the most exemplary, innovative, permanent or temporary public art created in the past year. The 2012 Year in Review awardees were chosen from 393 works from 147 cities across 40 states and three countries.
DODO, Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, 2008 - Official entrant, presentation of 100 mpg hybrid car design.
Guinness book of World Records, 1995 - The World's Largest Painting, as one of the founding members of the Southern Arts Revival group.