Geraldine ONeill ARHA (b.1971)

Holy Mary and the Chewing Gum Machine (2003)

Oil on canvas, 229 x 116cm (90¼ x 45¾")

Signed and dated 2003

Provenance: With Kevin Kavanagh Gallery,...

Geraldine ONeill ARHA (b.1971)

Holy Mary and the Chewing Gum Machine (2003)

Oil on canvas, 229 x 116cm (90¼ x 45¾")

Signed and dated 2003

Provenance: With Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin

 

Geraldine ONeill was born in Dublin in 1971, studied at the National College of Art and Design from 1989 to 1993 and in 2008 completed her MFA. She has lectured widely at Dublin Institute of Technology, St. Patricks College of Education and was an external tutor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011.

 

Her first solo show, Cake Sale was held in 1998 at the Jo Rain Gallery in Dublin and created quite a stir, not least for the exquisite quality of her painting. Her technical brilliance and her use of lustrous colours have identified ONeills work ever since. She has exhibited extensively in Ireland and abroad including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery London as well as in Frankfurt and at the Florence Biennale.She has won numerous awards, scholarships and bursaries and is represented in many collections both private and public including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the European Central Bank, the Office of Public Works and the Glucksman UCC collection. She is represented in Ireland by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery.

In 2016 her specially commissioned portrait of John Rocha entered the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. Most recent exhibitions include Many-World Interpretation (agus rudaí eile nach iad), 2017 in Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin, Volta Basel, Switzerland with Kevin Kavanagh, and SLAG Contemporary, New York. She is a member of Aodána and an associate of the RHA.

 

In his 2010 Dictionary of Living Irish Artists, Robert OByrne writes ONeill is clearly familiar with the canon of western art and her work makes reference most obviously to the 17th century Dutch and Flemish schools where still life flourished as an opportunity for virtuosity and the display of promiscuous abundance.

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