Ani O'Neill

Ani O'Neill (born 1971) is a New Zealand artist of Cook Island (Ngāti Makea, Ngāti Te Tika) and Irish descent. She has been described by art historian Karen Stevenson as one of the core members of a group of artists of Pasifika descent who brought contemporary Pacific art to "national prominence and international acceptance".

Education

O'Neill graduated from Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts in 1994, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Sculpture.

Work

Using a craft-based practice that employs identifiably Pacific materials, O'Neill's work is often collaborative or community-based.

Karen Stevenson writes:

Asserting a Cook Islands identity, yet positioning herself firmly in New Zealand, O’Neill creates a position from which she can question, critique and embrace Cook Islands icons. She noted “my art to me is really looking at my situation as a Rarotongan. I have always felt privileged to have had that background”.

In a 1995 show with artist Yuk King Tan at Teststrip gallery in Auckland, O'Neill showed a work titled Mu'u Mu'u Mama: three long frilly dresses, like the ones Cooks Islands women make for special occasions, suspended in the windows overlooking the street.

The Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū holds a mixed media artwork called 5 Little Piggies (2005) that was made for an exhibition in Rarotonga.

In 2006–2008 O'Neill participated in Pasifika Styles, an exhibition of fifteen New Zealand artists, mostly of Maori and Pacific Island descent, who were invited to make site-specific works throughout the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge that responded to objects in the museum's collection. For her collaborative work The Living Room with Tracey Tawhaio O'Neill 'domesticated' a corner of the museum, creating a lounge setting. Also included in the installation were photographs by Greg Semu and a monitor displaying a documentary commissioned from academic and broadcaster Lisa Tauoma featuring interviews with many of the artists included in the project.

In 1998, Ian George curated Paringa Ou, the first major exhibition of contemporary art by Cook Island artists residing in New Zealand featuring artists such as Ani O'Neill, Sylvia Marsters, Mahiriki Tangaroa, Michel Tuffery, Jim Vivieaere, Ian George, and Kay George, the exhibition travelled to the National Museum in Fiji, Cook Islands National Museum, as well as Gus Fisher Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. The exhibition was sponsored by the New Zealand High Commission.

O'Neill has continued to participate in major national and international exhibitions such as Rainbow Country (2000) at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Pasifika Styles (2006) at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and Le Folouga (2009) at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Taiwan.

As a member of Pacific Sisters, O'Neill travelled, exhibited and performed in their influential events which, as Karen Stevenson writes, produced "new voices of self-representation that challenged the comfort and serenity of the stereotype".

Collections O'Neill's work is represented in the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and Auckland Art Gallery.

Major exhibitions 2012 Home AKL, Auckland Art Gallery 2004 9th Festival of Pacific Arts, Belau, The Federated States of Micronesia 2002 Art and Industry/SCAPE Artist in Residence, Rangi Ruru Girls' School, Christchurch 2001 Bright Paradise, The 1st Auckland Triennial, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki 2000 Lisa Reihana and Pacific Sisters, Biennale of Sydney, Australia 2000 Biennale of Nouméa, Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre, New Caledonia 1998 Paringa Ou, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand; Fiji Museum, Fiji; Cook Islands National Museum, Rarotonga, Cook Islands 1998 Everyday, Biennale of Sydney, Australia 1998 Pasifika, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Australia 1997 Cottage Industry, City Gallery Wellington 1995 The Nervous System, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and City Gallery Wellington 1994 Bottled Ocean, City Gallery Wellington, Auckland Art Gallery, Waikato Museum, Te Manawa, Robert McDougall Art Annex