Mary Lovelace O’Neal’s Alluring New Paintings Were ‘Made in Mexico By Hand’

MARY LOVELACE O’NEAL, “Won—By a Nose,” 2021-23 WON–BY A NOSE, 2021-2023 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 7 x 10 feet, Diptych 2). | Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

A SYMPHONY OF COLOR AND GESTURE, the abstract paintings of Mary Lovelace O’Neal (b. 1942) are personal and political, serious and joyful. The concepts and themes reflect her history and experiences, tackle matters of race and gender, and reference nature, music, and literture.

O’Neal works across painting, drawing, and printmaking. New work by the artist is on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York. Eight, large-scale paintings are featured in the exhibition, “Mary Lovelace O’Neal: HECHO EN MÉXICO—a mano” (or “Made in Mexico by hand”).

A powerful painter with a storied biography, O’Neal has been practicing for six decades. Born in Jackson, Miss., she studied with James A. Porter, Lois Mailou Jones, and David C. Driskell at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She was active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE).

In New York, she joined the Black Arts Movement and earned an MFA from Columbia University (1969). In the 1980s, O’Neal participated in Robert Blackburn’s printmaking workshop in New York and Taller 99, a communal print workshop in Santiago, Chile, where she worked with Nemesio Antúnez. Over the years, she has traveled and worked throughout Africa, Europe, and Latin America.

In 1979, O’Neal joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley; became the first African American professor granted tenure in the Department of Art Practice (1985); and later served as chair of the department (1999). A professor emerita since 2006, she splits her time between Oakland, Calif., and Mérida, Mexico, where over the past three years she produced the paintings currently on view (all are dated 2021-23).

Anchored by black grounds, the works feature dramatic gestures of color, text, and representational forms, both figurative and architectural. The images appear to have leapt from Mary Lovelace O’Neal’s imagination.

Anchored by black grounds, the works feature dramatic gestures of color, text, and representational forms, both figurative and architectural. The images appear to have leapt from O’Neal’s imagination. Viewing the work, you feel like you can see what she was thinking, but you are not quite sure what you are looking at. The enigma, along with the beauty and allure of the mixed-media paintings, draws you in.

Compelling titles such as “Little Black Gambo’s Green Coat,” “Rooftops Where Women and Cats Rule,” and “Kiss My—Watermelon Lollipop,” further fascinate, giving some indication of what she had in mind, while raising more questions. “Won—By a Nose” pictures a loosely formed gray horse galloping toward victory. A towering skyscraper rises against a night sky in “Manhattan.”

In addition to the solo show at Marianne Boesky, O’Neal is among the 71 artists and collectives participating in the 2024 Whitney Biennial, currently on view nearby at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Close to her home in Oakland, the San Francisco Museum of Modern of Art is hosting a monographic survey. “New Work: Mary Lovelace O’Neal” is on view through Oct. 20, 2024. CT

IMAGE: Above right, Mary Lovelace O’Neal in her Oakland, Calif., studio in 2020. | Photo by Aubrey Trinnaman, Courtesy Marianne Boesky Gallery

Mary Lovelace O’Neal | HECHO EN MÉXICO—a mano is on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, N.Y. from March 15-May 4, 2024

FIND MORE Mary Lovelace O’Neal was in conversation with artist Suzanne Jackson in BOMB magazine (2021), profiled by the New York Times, and briefly explained her painting “Racism is Like Rain, Either it’s Raining or it’s Gathering Somewhere” (1993)

Installation view of “Mary Lovelace O’Neal | HECHO EN MÉXICO—a mano,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 15-May 4, 2024). | Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, Photo by Lance Brewer

MARY LOVELACE O’NEAL, “Manhattan,” 2021-23 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas
7 x 5 feet). | © Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Installation view of “Mary Lovelace O’Neal | HECHO EN MÉXICO—a mano,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 15-May 4, 2024). | Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, Photo by Lance Brewer

MARY LOVELACE O’NEAL, “Little BLack Gambo’s Green Coat,” 2021-23 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 7 x 5 feet). | Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Installation view of “Mary Lovelace O’Neal | HECHO EN MÉXICO—a mano,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 15-May 4, 2024). Shown, “Bright Lights Big City” (2021-2023). | Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, Photo by Lance Brewer

Installation view of “Mary Lovelace O’Neal | HECHO EN MÉXICO—a mano,” Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, N.Y. (March 15-May 4, 2024). Shown, from left, “Look Out for Me Francis” (2021-2023) and “Round Midnight” (2021-2023). | Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, Photo by Lance Brewer

MARY LOVELACE O’NEAL, “Rooftops Where Women and Cats Rule,” 2021-23 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 7 x 10 feet, Diptych 2). | © Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

BOOKSHELF
“Mary Lovelace O’Neal: Chasing Down the Image” was published to accompany the artist’s 2020 exhibition at Mnuchin Gallery, her first solo show in New York City in more 25 years. “Magnetic Fields: Expanding American Abstraction, 1960s to Today” documents a traveling exhibition of the same name. More than 20 artists, including O’Neal were featured in the pivotal show.