William J. O'Brien: Oscillates Wildly by KMAC Museum

Staff

Board of Directors

Aldy Milliken Executive Director

John Schriber, President Natalie Bajandas Stephanie Hall Barrett Theresa Carpenter Beames Robert Bertrand Jody Block Christina Carter Valerie Owens Combs Julio Driggs Mary Easterling Kevin Fennell Marlene Grissom Amy Hamm Karl Heckenberg Jody Howard Steven Howell, MD Eric Johnson Vonda Kirby Kathy Lewis Leslie Millar Debbie Huddleston Mitchell Jessica Rothgerber Murr Kristen Nagel Becky Kuster Ragland Mary Stone Lee Tatum Susan Vogt Chris Welsh Michelle Black White Danielle Wrobleski Schaefer

Michelle Staggs Director of Development Ramona Lindsey Director of Education Joey Yates Curator Emily Miles Communications Manager Julia Comer Shop Manager Kassie Alderson Visitors Services Manager Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ante Tinson Events Coordinator Joanna Miller Museum Educator Daniel Maye Bookkeeper Kristina Pettit Visitors Services & Membership Marcus Siu Art Handler Angela Johnson Facility Attendant Beth Heustis Collections & Exhibitions Assistant Luke Gnadinger, Kevin Warth, and Laurie White Visitors Services

front cover photo by Evan Jenkins 2

William J. O’Brien Oscillates Wildly January 21, 2017–April 9, 2017 Oscillates Wildly is Generously Supported by Brown-Forman Republic Bank The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Morgan Stanley Mary & Ted Nixon Stephen Reily & Emily Bingham Special Thanks to Those Who Helped Make This Exhibition Possible Jody and P.A. Howard, Edward Jaeky, Jr., Whitney J. Huffsmith, Ron and Patty Weiss, the Ellman Family, George and Linda Kurz, Marianne Boesky Gallery, and Shane Campbell Gallery.

THE MUSEUM CONNECTS PEOPLE TO ART AND CREATIVE PRACTICE. 3

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR I don’t believe in Art. I believe in the Artist. –Marcel Durchamp We are honored to exhibit William J. O’Brien Oscillates Wildly, curated by Joey Yates as our first KMAC exhibition of 2017. If this is the Year of the Artist, then William’s work represents a breadth of so many materials, techniques and concepts. This coincides with his exploration of the visual genres of the artworld that range from Modernism to the Self Taught artist. By making, he is interpreting so many ideas at a frenetic pace, evaluating the very nature of art itself. For KMAC, a solo exhibition with an artist is a special opportunity for us to dig deeply into our values as an institution. Thank you to Bill for being such a generous collaborator! For 35 years KMAC has focused on supporting artists as a way to highlight our region’s vitality. The KMAC platform for artists has grown dramatically in the past year thanks to so many of our supporters and donors who understand that a vital art scene is a reflection of our own regional dynamism. Their investment in our building, our exhibitions, and our educational outreach is an act of appreciation towards the value of art and artists. While the community came together to support KMAC’s mission of Connecting People to Art, there are some major 4

donors that have made a tremendous investment in our Capital Campaign and our Annual Operations to allow this important work to go on – a sincere thank you to: the James Graham Brown Foundation, Al Shands, Marlene & David Grissom, Jody & P.A. Howard, Brooke & Matthew Barzun, Christy Brown, Augusta & Gill Holland, Laura Lee Brown & Steve Wilson, Rick Heath & Merrily Orsini, Lindy & Bill Street, Republic Bank & the Trager Family, Leslie & James Millar, the Ogle Foundation, Elizabeth Davis, the Gheens Foundation, Mary & Ted Nixon, DDW The Color House, John & Amanda Schriber, Heather & Marshall Farrer, Natalie & John Bajandas and the Arthur K Smith Family Foundation, Steven & Heather Howell, the Barth Foundation and Elizabeth Dodd, Angela & Lee Leet, Chen & Tyler Allen, Jody & Tom Block, Lee & Jenny Tatum, Elizabeth & Mike Mays, Mark & Heather Preston, Kat & John Lewis, Matt & Kathy Watkins, Mary & Dave Easterling, Eric & Letisa Johnson, and Dale & Ceci Boden. Visitors now come to KMAC for educational experiences with art on multiple levels, in multiple ways across multiple ages and demographics. KMAC believes in artists because they help us challenge and understand the world around us. Thank you to KMAC Board members past and present for appreciating the growth that make our art museum especially interesting. Thank you to Joey Yates and the KMAC staff for being a team that passionately believes that Art is the deepest form of communication. Enjoy the show! Aldy Milliken, KMAC Executive Director #theyearoftheartist2017

LETTER FROM THE CURATOR William J. O’Brien shifts effortlessly from creating ceramic and steel sculptures to working with textiles, drawing, and painting. Central to his varied practice, and equally to the province of craft itself, is a dexterous manipulation of multiple materials and forms venerating handmade labor and other meaningful connections with the physical world. Oscillating between two-dimensional surfaces to three-dimensional structures, his work explores varying relationships between color, form, pattern and texture, balancing tensions amid abstraction and figuration, chaos and control, absurdity and logic. In our modern lexicon of creative activity, O’Brien is commonly considered a maker, someone who is engaged in a thoughtful, physically rigorous, and oftentimes improvisational approach to materiality and process. Artists working with a wide range of digital resources and new media have reignited the discourse around the dematerialization of art in the Internet era, but O’Brien embraces tactile experiences that allow for a range of actions with material seeking, as he says, to “manifest the physical activity of the body and the studio.” This exposes a kind of studio performance, which acts as a creative end in itself whereby his materials are subjected to a set of capricious gestures reflecting the anarchic

appearance of his work. These expressive movements function as dances between the material and the artist’s body with O’Brien’s finished works in colored pencil, oil pastel, ink, acrylic, metal, felt, clay and glaze serving as choreographed scores. Drawing inspiration from an array of historical art movements, O’Brien creates work that blends conventional craft techniques with various methods of spontaneous mark making. Ignoring the hierarchies that were previously meant to segregate artistic practice, O’Brien obscures the distinctions between the skilled and amateur artist. Our conceptions of genre and history are collapsed into an idiosyncratic process where we see O’Brien’s blurring the modern narratives of Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and the decorative arts, as well as more vernacular and intuitive forms of art like folk art of the American South and Art Brut. William J. O’Brien is a protégé of an artistic philosophy that mingles the aesthetic discourses of Clement Greenberg’s formal Modernism and Jean Dubuffet’s advocacy of a raw, spontaneous form of creativity that he saw most directly expressed in the work of the mentally ill. Dubuffet regarded these undervalued artists as possessing the most pure and uninhibited minds, 5

later positioning artists such as Adolf Wölfli and Aloïse Corbaz to become the preeminent gatecrashers to the prevailing aesthetic norms of 20th century western art. There is an unconscious psychology to O’Brien’s process that obscures an underlying logic or hidden language, which even the artist is not fully aware of during the making of the work. O’Brien beguiles his materials and forms with a set of gestural whims that act as a kind of incantation or magical spell akin to automatic writing, or more directly, automatic drawing, allowing the hands to shape material, or move across paper or canvas in an unrestrained manner. The Surrealists, Jean Arp, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Miró championed this type of free hand expression of the subconscious. O’Brien is a keen observer of material culture and history. In a 2014 interview he explains that, “This idea of identity in material and process is something I am greatly fascinated by as a means to embrace, contradict, and evaluate the role that certain materials have within different contexts.” References to religious iconography and eroticism were prominent in his early work. Some of those ideas endure in this exhibition, but in more coded ways. The large figurative ceramics are among his most recent works and their poses suggest the related influences of eastern philosophy, meditation, and yoga, combined with classical GrecoRoman statuary, and infused with his own 6

sensual encounters with material. There is a political dimension to this process of intermingling art history with personal desire, which appends new sensibilities to the heteronormative narratives that shape our notions of viewership and art. O’Brien’s conceptual strategies are reminiscent of Situationist pranks and the veiled minimalism of Felix GonzalezTorres. O’Brien’s allusions to the creative practices of self-taught artists like Dan Miller and Judith Scott, alongside the methods of Modern masters like Sol LeWitt, Willem de Kooning and Anne Truitt, resonate in his art through his research and making techniques, emphasizing a pursuit of alternative approaches to art production that exist on the fringes. The daily act of drawing maintains a central position in O’Brien’s studio practice informing subsequent compositions in clay, felt and steel. A dense expressive language, with an astute eye for line and color, emerges while he works in colored pencil, ink, oil pastels and acrylic paint. His smaller scale ceramics serve a similar function, assembling the foundation for his most fundamental ideas. Mounds of clay that morph into head forms, faces and vases reference pre-Civil War face vessel pottery from the Southern United States. Originating in the African American community, these “ugly or grotesque jugs” served both a spiritual function in warding off devils from gravesites, and a practical function as menacing storage containers that would keep kids out of

the moonshine. Whilst the acts of drawing and painting provide O’Brien a more solitary experience with material, his increasingly larger works require more collaborative processes with a community of supportive artisans, machines and vendors. Assistance is necessary in the operation and maintenance of large ceramic kilns, the sewing of ever-expanding arrangements in felt, and the welding, die-cutting and powder-coating of steel. His felt collages and steel structures not only employ similar collaborative efforts, but both also convey an appearance of being constructed using cast-offs from the studio floor. In an effort to combat excessive waste, the gesture of using spare material is furthered in his mixed media works, a series of paintings, drawings and sculptures that are comprised almost entirely of redundant items from his personal space. O’Brien talks about his works in terms of being portraits or memories of a specific person, time, and place. Each object in O’Brien’s oeuvre is informed by his thoughts about a specific experience contemplated and translated into the process as he creates. His inner thoughts could be regarded as a kind of helping hand; while the two physical hands shape the material, a third will mold the meaning. Joey Yates, KMAC Curator

WILLIAM J. O’BRIEN b. 1975, Cleveland, OH Based in Chicago, Illinois William J. O’Brien received his BA in Studio Art from Loyola University in Chicago, and his MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 2007 he has had several solo exhibitions at the Shane Campbell Gallery in Chicago and The Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York, where his most recent body of work featuring new sculptures in bronze will be on view in a show titled The Protectors from January 5–February 4, 2017. In 2014, he had his first major survey exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, curated by Naomi Beckwith. His work is included in several private and public collections including the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio; Perez Art Museum Miami, Florida; The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; The Hara Museum of Art, Japan; and the Art Institute of Chicago, amongst others. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

opposite page, photo by Robert Chase Heishman 8

CERAMICS

Untitled 2012, Ceramic 12" x 12" x 13" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2011, Ceramic 11" x 9.5" x 9" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2008, Ceramic 18" x 10" x 9" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2011, Ceramic 11.5" x 11.5" x 16" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Ceramic 17" x 14" x 9" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Ceramic 14" x 11" x 10" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2009, Ceramic 9.5" x 5" x 5.5" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2011, Ceramic 10.25" x 7.5" x 12.75" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2016, Ceramic 11.5" x 17.5" x 18" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic 22" x 15" x 18" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2016, Ceramic 14" x 12" x 12" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Glazed ceramic 17.5" x 11" x 8" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2013, Ceramic 9" x 11" x 13" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Glazed ceramic 17" x 14" x 10" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2013, Ceramic 22" x 15" x 15" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic 22" x 15" x 15" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2012, Ceramic 13" x 3" x 9" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic 20" x 18" x 14" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2016, Ceramic 11.5" x 18.5" x 19" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic 18" x 13" x 14" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic 20" x 16" x 22" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic 19" x 15" x 15" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic 20.75" x 10" x 10.5" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2014, Glazed ceramic 21" x 21" x 10" Collection of Jody & P.A. Howard

Untitled 2015, Glazed ceramic, 20.75" x 10" x 10.5" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

METAL & TOTEMS

Untitled 2012, Powder coated steel 23" x 19" x 15" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2012, Powder coated steel 24" x 24" x 102" Collection of George and Linda Kurz

Untitled 2014, Powder coated steel 25" x 23" x 6" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Ceramic and steel 88" x 24" x 24" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

FIGURES

Untitled 2016, Ceramic and steel 78.5" x 20" x 20" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2016, Ceramic and steel 84" x 20" x 20" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2016, Ceramic and steel 77" x 20" x 20" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

DRAWINGS

Untitled 2008, Ink on paper 18.5" x 13.5" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2008, Mixed media on paper 17" x 14" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2008, Ink on paper 11.875" x 8.875" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Ink on paper 18" x 24" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2008, Mixed media on paper 12" x 9" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Ink on paper 18" x 24" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2010, Colored pencil on paper 24" x 18" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 1998, Colored pencil on cardboard 17â&#x20AC;? x 14â&#x20AC;? Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2015, Ink on paper 19.5" x 25.5" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

FELT

Untitled 2015, Felt on felt 72" x 72" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2015 , Felt on felt 72" x 72" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2014, Felt on felt 72" x 72" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

Untitled 2015, Felt on felt 72" x 72" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2014, Felt on felt 72" x 72" Courtesy of the artist and Shane Campbell Gallery

OIL PASTEL

Untitled 2016, Oil pastel and watercolor on paper 17" x 14" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

MIXED MEDIA

Loverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Knot 2012, Mixed media 18" x 24" x 24" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2011, Mixed media 2.25" x 7" x 17" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2012, Mixed media 25" x 16" x 9" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2012, Mixed media 84.5" x 72.5" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2012, Wood, nails, acrylic 17" x 8" x 7.5" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

FIGURATIVE PAINTINGS

Untitled 2016, Acrylic on canvas 88" x 60" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

COLORED PENCIL

Untitled 2015, Colored pencil on paper 40" x 26" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2015, Colored pencil and ink on paper 60" x 62" Collection of Ellman Family

Untitled 2015, Colored pencil on paper 40" x 26" Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

Untitled 2013, Colored pencil and ink on paper 48" x 72" Collection of Ron and Patty Weiss, Chicago, IL.

Untitled 2015, Colored pencil on paper 40" x 26" Collection of Edward Jaeky, Jr.

Untitled 2009, Colored pencil and ink on paper 50" x 38" Collection of Whitney J. Huffsmith

Untitled 2011, Colored pencil and ink on paper 17" x 14" Collection of Jody and P.A. Howard

Education guides can be accessed & downloaded from the museum website, KMACmuseum.org Upcoming Exhibition Thread Lines, April 29–August 6, 2017

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