Jill O'Bryan
American, born 1956
Jill O’Bryan (born 1956 in Chicago) divides her year between urban life in New York City and wide-open spaces of New Mexico. Her artwork archives experiences of being-in-time, recording human interactions with the elements: air, earth, fire, and water. She began a series of breath drawings in 2000, recording her own breaths to capture time — one billion breaths in the course of a lifetime. Her large rock frottages record her body interactions with the desert earth, and her recent Element paintings, which appropriate the color iconography of Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags, are made by layering watercolor pigments onto rice paper, creating deeply luminescent prayers for the four elements.
She has an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a Ph.D. from New York University in Aesthetic Theory and Criticism.
O’Bryan has exhibited widely, including a forthcoming exhibition at the National Gallery of Art Library, DC (2021); Margarete Roeder Gallery, New York (2016, 2018, 2019); Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe (2017); The Phillips Collection, Washington DC (2014); The Hafnarfjör∂ur Centre of Culture and Fine Art, Iceland (2013); Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University, St. Louis (2012); Gallery Joe, Philadelphia (2012); Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ (2012); University of Richmond Museum (2012); Katonah Museum of Art, NY (2011); Danese Gallery, New York (2011); and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain (2009).
Person TypeIndividual
