Artist Biography
Megan O’Neil is a young artist who has recently started her artistic career outside of academics. She is an oil painter who graduated from Indiana University with her Bachelor's in Fine Arts in Painting in 2022. She has exhibited in a dozen group shows throughout the midwest and has received several awards. Extending beyond the realm of oil paint, she has dipped into design, mural, and sketch explorations. Currently, she paints as a freelance artist out of her home in Grand Haven, Michigan.
While all of Megan's work has involved organic matter and patterns, her current body of work stylizes them in a flat and shape driven way. She’s driven to create based on a feeling when encountering a plant or flower of extreme color, interesting body, or special markings. Intricate plants and flowers that are normally seen in naturalistic ways are cut down to basic contour and line detail. To amplify this further, colors are heightened in a way to extremize the actual subject matter. Color relations are built over layers based upon how they are reacting to each other. The paintings are feminine and delicate, but flashy and distinct. Her work is light and approachable in content yet decisive in technical execution.
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Megan O’Neil CV
Education and Honors
Indiana University
Bachelor’s of Fine Arts; GPA 3.92/4.0
Major: Painting
Minors: Art History, Arts Management
Executive Dean’s List
Founder’s Scholar
Highest Distinction
Solo Exhibition
Featured Artist, Midwest Movement Collective, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Group Exhibitions
ArtPrize, Brush Studio, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Twentysomethings, Holland Area Arts Council, Holland, MI, 2024.
Radical Botanical, DAAC, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Art in the Village, Spring Lake, MI, 2024.
Botany Convention Artist Extravaganza, Devos Place, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Regional Festival for the Arts, Devos Place, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Art! at the Market, Fulton St Market, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Saturday Night Show Vol. 56. AllArtWorks Viewing Studio, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Postcard Salon, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI, 2024.
Saturday Night Show Vol. 48. AllArtWorks Viewing Studio, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
World of Winter Festival, 106 Gallery, Grand Rapids, MI, 2024.
Ox-Bow House Winter Artist Market, Ox-Bow House, Douglas, MI, 2023-2024.
Saturday Night Show Vol. 30, AllArtWorks Viewing Studio, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023.
ArtPrize, The Arts Marketplace, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023.
Postcard Salon, Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI, 2023.
Art for the Parks, Hemlock Crossing County Parks, West Olive, MI, 2023.
Holiday Show, Capizzo Studio + Gallery, Saugatuck MI, 2022.
A Walk in the Woods, Duncan Park, Grand Haven, MI, 2022.
Fall PopUp Exhibition, Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI, 2022.
‘Bloom,’ BFA Thesis Show, Grunwald Gallery of Art, Bloomington, IN, 2022.
National Society of Arts & Letters Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition, FAR Center for Contemporary Arts, Bloomington, IN, 2022.
‘BFA Persona Show’, IFell Gallery, Bloomington IN, 2020.
Gallery and Vendor
AllArtWorks, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023-Present.
Arts Marketplace, Grand Rapids, MI, 2023-Present.
Awards
Emmanuel Bud Klein Merit Award. NSAL Visual Arts Competition. 2022.
Publications
“Issue No. 20”, p. 42-43, Suboart Magazine, 2024.
“West Michigan Local Artist Holiday Guide”, Cultivate, 2023.
“ArtPrize Magazine Grade K-3 Issue 2”, Cover Art, Cultivate, 2023.
“West Michigan Local Artist Holiday Guide”, p.16, Cultivate, 2022.
Organizations
Lakeshore Visual Arts Collective, Grand Haven, MI, 2022-Present.
Painting Guild, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 2020-2022.