Marcelyn McNeil
Marcelyn McNeil creates both intimate- and large-scale oil abstractions that evolve primarily through pouring methods. Adopting a lyrical call-and-response attitude toward process, the artist uses multiple layers, stains, and bleeds of thinned pigment that fade into one another—suggesting a space that is both formed and unformed. McNeil’s quietly subversive work experiments with illusion, perspective and color to create a place for unmediated introspection.
Born in Kansas Marcelyn McNeil received an MFA from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Solo exhibitions of McNeil’s work have taken place at: Conduit Gallery in Dallas, Texas; Lawndale Art Center in Houston, Texas; Galveston Art Center in Galveston, Texas; Kathryn Markel in New York City; Robischon in Denver, Colorado; and Central Features in Albuquerque, New Mexico; among others. Group exhibitions including McNeil’s work have taken place at: San Antonio Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas; Denny Gallery in New York City; Wilding Cran Gallery in Los Angeles, California; McClain Gallery in Houston, Texas; and Joymore Gallery in Chicago, Illinois; among others. McNeil’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas and the San Antonio Museum of Art in San Antonio, Texas. A monograph, Marcelyn McNeil Works, was published by Radius Books in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2022. Included in the book are writings by Hesse McGraw, Executive Director at CAM Houston in Texas, and Alison Hearst, a curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas. McNeil currently lives and works in Dallas, Texas.
Conduit Gallery Exhibitions
EDUCATION
M.F.A. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL
B.F.A. Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR
AWARDS
2016 Zeta Orionis Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, Vermont
2015 Visual Artist of the Year, Decorative Arts Center Houston, TX
2013 Richard Diebenkorn Fellowship, SFAI, finalist
2011 MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Peterborough, NH
2010 New American Paintings, Western Edition, volume #90
2007 New American Paintings, Western Edition, volume #72
2005 New American Paintings, Western Edition, volume #60
2003 CAAP Grant, The City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs
1993 Purchase Award, The Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2022 Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
2022 Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
2020 San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
2020 Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TX (solo)
2019 Lawndale, Houston, TX
2018 Robischon Gallery, Denver, CO
2018 LHUCA Museum, Lubbock, TX
2017 Katheryn Markel Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX
2016 Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
2015 Katheryn Markel, New York, NY
2015 Denny Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015 Harvester, Wichita, KS
2014 Central Features, Albuqerque, NM
2013 Texas Biennial, San Antonio, TX
2013 Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
2013 McClain Gallery, Houston, TX (group)
2011 TFAA, Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston,TX
2011 Texas Biennial, Austin, TX
2010 Darke Gallery, Houston, TX
2010 G Gallery, Houston, TX
2008 River City Biennial, Wichita, KS
2005 The Wichita Center For The Arts, KS
2004 ZG Gallery, Chicago, IL