Robyn O’Neil: On sinking.
@ Tony Wight Gallery
119 N Peoria St 2C, Chicago, IL 60607
Opening Friday, September 11th, from 5PM - 8PM
On view through Saturday, October 17th
Tony Wight Gallery is pleased to announce On sinking., an exhibition of new drawings by acclaimed artist Robyn O’Neil. A limited-edition suite of prints, published in conjunction with this exhibition, will also be available through the gallery.
Robyn O’Neil’s obsessively detailed drawings have become widely known for their pointed and metaphorical investigations of such inauspicious thematics as the apocolypse, evolution, mass disaster and extinction. O’Neil’s earlier works were often densely populated and epic in scale with communities of little men in uniform tracksuits parading around desolate landscapes, seemingly unaware of the danger their surroundings presented. As this series progressed, the turbulence of their environment became increasingly palpable. Ultimately, O’Neil concluded the eight-year saga with a drawing of the sole surviving member of the community hanging tenuously over a tumultuous ocean, the extinction of the little men was imminent.
In O’Neil’s latest series, the dire trajectory of her previous narrative begins to destabilize, the drawings becoming increasingly iconic, poetic and dream-like. Rather than signaling a new found hope, these images create an emotional ambience that suggests an uncertain future. The world is unhinged and dismantled. Each drawing is able to function like an individual song or poem that may or may not relate to the drawings hung around it. Released from an explicit narrative, these works revel in the formal qualities of drawing.
« previous event
next event »