Jimmy O'Neal

Adrift Within a Long Loving Look, Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA (2018)

Wrestling the Angel, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, NC (2018)

Golden Goal, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA (2017)

As part of his MFA thesis exhibition at SCAD in 2016, O'Neal reprogrammed an arcade roller coaster simulator to follow a paint brush as it moves across the painting surface, as though it were the track of a roller coaster. The brush strokes were filmed in a first-person perspective as the painting was created, and the footage was then synchronized with the movements of the roller coaster simulator. The simulator has six different "tracks" for the "rider" to choose from, each following a different brush along the twists and turns of the viscous paint. The work is titled "DIAPAUSE: Riding the Viscosity", and the painting created in the process is "Magic Mirror."

Jimmy O'Neal: What Essence Was It, That Time Was Of, SCAD, Savannah, GA (2016)

511.95 Hz of wine, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, NC (2013)

Wheels on the Bus in Seven Cymatic Sonatas, Art-in-Transit Commission, Charlotte Area Transit System, North Davidson Bus Facilities, Charlotte, NC (2012)

In 2011, O'Neal created "Wheels on the Bus in 7 Cymatic Sonatas" as a commission for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) in Charlotte, NC. He recorded various sounds from within city buses and bus facilities and used the cymascope to create visual translations of each sound. The images are titled for the sounds they represent, such as "Bus Horn G#" and "Resonant Frequency of Main Garage F", and appear on the exteriors of two CATS facility buildings. Due to time and budget constraints, the work was created with 3M chrome film that simulates the reflective quality of O'Neal's mirrored paint, causing the appearance of the work to change with the appearance of the sky. In 2012, the work was named one of the 50 best public art projects by Americans for the Arts (AFTA).

Reactants, HanesBrands Theatre Lobby Wall, Winston-Salem Arts Council Commission, MiltonRhodes Center for the Arts, Winston-Salem, NC, (2009)

The Nine Muses, Entrance, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Commission, Atlanta, GA. (2007)

Make it New, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC (2007)

Cross Currents, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC (2005)

O'Neal created a "painting machine" by connecting an electroencephalogram (EEG) device that would read his brain activity and translate the electrical impulses to a dual axis paint brush. In 2003, he incorporated it into a work for "Painting4", an exhibition at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University featuring O'Neal, Ingrid Calame, Katharina Grosse, and Michael Lin.

Painting4, The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (2003)

Primacy of Movement, The Joie Lassiter Gallery, Charlotte, NC (2002)

Jimmy O'Neal: Speculum, Van Every Gallery, Davidson College, Davidson, NC (2001)

"Maximal Overdrive: Diana McClintock Visits Jimmy O'Neal" Art PapersVol 24, No. 3 (May/June 2000), 18.

Jimmy O'Neal (born 1967) is an American painter known for large-scale installations of abstract reflective paintings. His work is often experimental, interactive, and inclusive of other media, and is sometimes derived from technological innovations such as an EEG machine and a cymascope. In 1995, he collaborated with fellow students at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to create the world's largest painting. The painting was the size of two football fields, and was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records with credit to the group under the name "Southern Arts Revival."

O'Neal's work includes public and private commissions, museum exhibitions, and numerous group and solo exhibitions at galleries throughout the United States. Born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1967, O'Neal earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Illustration and his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting, both at Savannah College of Art and Design.