Robyn O'Neil's (born 1977, Omaha, NE) prodigious career places her in the company of some of the great landscape artists in the history of art. Known for her detailed narrative drawings that often contain art historical references, her work ranges from the most intimate of renderings to monumental multi-paneled works. Often surreal or symbolic, her drawings reference personal narratives and art historical allusions, all while dealing with themes of memory, identity and climate crises. Her mid-career survey exhibition “WE, THE MASSES”, organized by Alison Hearst for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, was on view October 2019- February 2020.
For the Dallas Art Fair, we will be presenting a selection from O’Neil’s “Hotel Stationery Drawings” series. Read on to learn more about these works from the artist herself.
-
-
...The hotel stationery drawings started because I have an almost manic need to be making things every waking minute. Any time I was away from my studio while traveling, it drives me absolutely crazy. My studio drawings are not something I can easily travel with and work on while away, so these stationary drawings happened out of necessity. I simply have to make drawings every day. It’s a part of how I process my work and the world, so without doing this while away from my studio, the drawings I make IN the studio wouldn’t be as good.
-
After making quite a few of them on the hotel stationery of rooms I actually stayed in, I started collecting various hotel stationery from around the world. I noticed that when I approach a piece of paper or envelope that already has image and print on it, I’m MUCH LOOSER. “Loose” is something I’m just NOT. So anything that challenges that part of me is always a good thing. On these hotel drawings, anything is possible. I can say anything, draw anything. Why I don’t feel that way when I’m drawing on paper that isn’t hotel stationary is beyond me. It just is.
-
The “spirit” of these is also in line with my love of marginalia of all kinds. I’m an avid book collector, and I am one that absolutely loves finding interesting notes in the margins of used books. So I take this interest, and apply it to the way I write on some of these hotel drawings.
-
I’ve also been very affected by the notes and "envelope writings" of Emily Dickinson. Th[e] book The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dicken's Envelope Poems details just how drawing-like they are...They’re very much drawings to me. They’re like Richard Tuttle sculptures!
-
And perhaps most directly, I also remember being very moved by seeing Martin Kippenberger’s hotel stationery drawings. They often served as a sort of travel diary. There was something so immediate and natural about them. Here are a few.
– Robyn O'Neil on the Hotel Stationery Drawings Series (2021)
