Robyn O’Neil at Susan Inglett Gallery

‘American Animals,’ an uncannily orderly yet apocalyptic vision of the heads of white men subsumed by waves of water or hair, dominates Robyn O’Neil’s current solo show at Susan Inglett Gallery.  Known for drawings that feature multitudes of middle-aged men wreaking various kinds of havoc, O’Neil suggests with this enormous drawing that the men are receiving their comeuppance, perhaps from a feminine force engulfing them with hair or from nature, overcoming them with waves of water.  Who are the men?  Why is their response to calamity so strangely passive?  O’Neil keeps us guessing with provocative questions. (On view in Chelsea through June 4th).

Robyn O’Neil, American Animals, graphite on canvas, 103 x 140 inches, 2020 – 2022.

Robyn O’Neil at Susan Inglett Gallery

The visionary landscapes of Joseph Yoakum (1890-1972) and Robyn O’Neil (b. 1977) are Spartan and stylized, turning familiar natural forms of mountains, trees and more into apocalyptic omens. In this detail of a drawing by O’Neil, America’s national bird dominates a huddled crowd and an inhospitable landscape. (On view at Susan Inglett Gallery through Jan 27th).

Robyn O’Neil, detail of The Everywhere Citadel, graphite on paper, 38 ½ x 60 ¼ inches, 2016.