MICHAEL OWEN O’NEILL

Michael O’Neill was born in 1982 in San Antonio, Texas. He is currently pursuing a BFA in Metalsmithing at Texas State University, San Marcos. O’Neill’s artwork uses deconstructed architectural forms and found detritus to describe historic and often catastrophic events that have transformed the identity of particular places. His work has been exhibited in many national exhibitions and publications, including State of Flux in Seattle, Washington where he received an award of excellence from the Society of North American Goldsmiths. In addition, he was recently commissioned to create a piece for the Texas House of Representatives. O’Neill resides in Austin, Texas where he continues to create exceptional artwork while setting his sights on attending graduate school in 2012.

 artist statement:

My work is a form of personal archaeology. I use deconstructed architectural forms and found detritus to describe historic and often catastrophic events that have transformed the identity of particular places. The sites that interest me are evoked from childhood memory, but are also part of the broader communal history of place. It is my goal to incorporate these rescued bits from antiquated southern culture with contemporary forms in such that they are integrated yet remain distinctly different from each other.

It is important for me to illustrate the fragmentary nature of memory. I am fascinated with how personal memory is both accessed and revealed, how recollections are embellished and enhanced by time, and how in their retelling, memories become history and thus a part of a larger cultural identity.

Over the last century in the United States families and society as a whole have become fragmented with the ease or necessity of relocation. This in some measure has caused the loss of a sense of homestead and connection to place. I make work not only to understand myself and my culture, but also to communicate our continually changing place in the world.