In her distinctive painterly approach, underpinned by her conceptual and technical certainty, the backgrounds of O’Neill’s layered compositions quote and repurpose the work of past masters, such as Flemish painter Breughel, an artist who delighted in the minutiae of nature and humanity’s place within it. Found objects, such as delicate, stilled bird cadavers that were gathered with care by friends, or a discarded ice-cream are superimposed on reproductions after others. All these elements reach across time, in terms of collective histories, and for the individual they are reminded of past sensations and emotions which are reanimated through O’Neill’s colour saturated virtuosity. Throughout her career the artist has drawn on her experiences as a mother, her children’s drawings remind adults of other times in their lives, when things appeared more straightforward and more hopeful. These childlike marks challenge the adult self, questioning the extent to which the world is a better and more sustainable place under their watch.

Extract from an accompanying text by Dr Angela Griffith
Dr Angela Griffith is director of the Irish Art Research Centre and a lecturer with the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Trinity College Dublin.

To coincide with Solastalgia, the Gallery is hosting an evening with Geraldine O’Neill and Independant Curator Eamonn Maxwell: In Conversation on Tuesday 31 May at 6pm

Recent solo and selected group exhibitions include Golden Fleece Award 21 Years, Solstice Arts Centre, Navan (2022), Ground_Zero_ 360, Museum of Biblical Art, Dallas, USA (2021), New Perspectives, National Gallery of Ireland (2021), Blue, Garterlane Waterford (2020), 21st Century Ireland in 21 Artworks, Glebe House and Gallery, Letterkenny (2019), MAKing Art PAINTing, Draíocht (2019), Many Worlds, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2017), Hold To The Now,
SLAG Gallery, New York (2015) and solo exhibition Many-Worlds Interpretation agus rudaí eile nach iad, Kevin Kavanagh (2017).

Upcoming shows include The Sunset Belongs To You with Mick O’Dea, The Model, Sligo, and Shelter, National Gallery of Ireland with the STAC collective.

Geraldine O’Neill was elected to Aosdána in 2015 and is a member of the RHA since 2013.