Image by Fredrich Cantor

Pat O’Neill was born in 1939 in Los Angeles. Long known as a pioneer in experimental film and visual effects, O’Neill has also produced a distinctive body of sculpture using postwar industrial materials such as fiberglass, plexiglass, resin, and aluminum.

Selected solo exhibitions include Curatorial Exhibitions at The Reef, Los Angeles (2025); Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (2021, 2015); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2019); Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles (2018); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2016); Monitor, Rome (2016); VeneKlasen /Werner, Berlin (2016); Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles (2015, 2013); Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Los Angeles (2011); and the Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Huntington Beach Art Center, CA (2024); Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles (2021); Martos Gallery, New York (2019); Villa Arson, Nice, France (2018); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016, 2008, 1991); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2015); Les Abattoirs, Musée–Frac Occitanie Toulouse, France (2014); Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010, 2008, 2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2009); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2008); and Tate Liverpool, England (2006). Honors and awards include a Creative Capital Grant (2015); a California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2013); First Prize in Film at FLEX Fest, Tampa (2011); a Rockefeller Foundation Grant (1997); the Maya Deren Award for Independent Film and Video, American Film Institute (1993); and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1992). O’Neill earned a BA (1962) and an MA (1964) from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Pat O’Neill

IN THE STUDIO