Jill O'Bryan

Jill O'Bryan
Born1956
EducationNew York University, San Francisco Art Institute, Macalester College
Known forDrawing, public art
SpouseCharles Ross
WebsiteJill O'Bryan website
Jill O'Bryan, The Shape of the Sound of Breath, graphite and oil stick on Bhutan Mitsumata rice paper, 16 x 32", 2019.

Jill O'Bryan (born 1956) is an American contemporary artist whose work draws upon breath, bodily movement and the natural environment in order to examine the experience of being, time and place.[1][2][3] She is most known for her "Breath Drawings," in which she records each of her breaths with an individual mark thousands of times, and her ground rubbings (frottages), which document her physical engagement with the New Mexico desert mesa.[4][5][6] Southwest Contemporary wrote, "O’Bryan’s artmaking is not an act of representational picture-making but a practice of accumulating the residue of recorded time and place through the physical actions of her body. Her process is performative, specifically located in time and space, and records moment-to-moment interactions with the elements."[7]

O'Bryan has exhibited in drawing, artist-book and other surveys at the Zimmerli Art Museum, Kemper Art Museum,[8] Katonah Museum of Art,[9] Hafnarfjör∂ur Centre of Culture and Fine Art (Iceland),[10] New Mexico Museum of Art[11] and National Gallery of Art,[5] as well as through a commission from The Phillips Collection.[12][13] She lives and works in SoHo, Manhattan and New Mexico with her husband, artist Charles Ross.[12][13]

  1. ^ Beachy-Quick, Dan. "Jill O’Bryan," Artforum, October 2022. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  2. ^ Newhall, Edie. "Jill O'Bryan's deep breaths," Philadelphia Inquirer, May 6, 2012. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  3. ^ Shapland, Jenn. "Inside Nature and Time: Charles Ross + Jill O’Bryan," Southwest Contemporary, July 1, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  4. ^ Weideman, Paul. "State of being: Jill O’Bryan’s Mapping Resonance," Pasatiempo, January 13, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  5. ^ a b Tresp, Lauren and Clayton Porter. "Studio Visit: Jill O’Bryan," THE Magazine, November 1, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  6. ^ MacQueen, Kathleen. "In Site/In Mind: Jill O'Bryan," Shifting Connections, December 10, 2013. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  7. ^ Rizzo, Angie. "Jill O’Bryan," Southwest Contemporary, July 30, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  8. ^ Nackman, Rachel. "Jill O’Bryan," Notations: Contemporary Drawing as Idea and Process, St. Louis, MO: Kemper Art Museum, 2012. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  9. ^ Gold, Sylviane. "Sublime Notions From a Species That Likes to Doodle," The New York Times, February 18, 2011. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  10. ^ Raffel, Amy. "Jill O'Bryan," Art=Text=Art, Hafnarfjör∂ur, Iceland: The Hafnarfjör∂ur Centre of Culture and Fine Art, 2013. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  11. ^ New Mexico Museum of Art. "Breath Taking," Exhibitions. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
  12. ^ a b Hass, Nancy. "A Land Art Pioneer’s Adventures in Time and Space," The New York Times, July 21, 2020. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  13. ^ a b Jadrnak, Jackie. "An archive of breaths," Albuquerque Journal, January 13, 2017. Retrieved December 6, 2022.