Robyn O'Neil

Robyn O’Neil’s intricate works on paper depict desolate landscapes that allegorize the comedy and tragedy of the human condition. Inspired by art-historical and literary sources, including Hieronymous Bosch and pre-Renaissance altarpieces, her practice straddles the idioms of cartoon illustration, Surrealism, and apocalyptic narrative. O’Neil received her BFA from Texas A&M University­–Commerce in 2000 and went to graduate school at the University of Illinois Chicago. Her monochromatic work from the early 2000s features tiny men in tracksuits against vast snowscapes. Since 2007, she has primarily drawn animals in her landscape work. O’Neil’s early shows included a residency at Artpace San Antonio (2003), the 2004 Whitney Biennial, and a solo show at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2006). In 2019, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth held her mid-career retrospective.