Marykate O’Neil:
f*ck the 7th grade

October 29th – November 16th, 2024

Marykate O’Neil is a multimedia artist living and working in NYC. In 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, Marykate began studying at the Art Students League of New York with Margaret McCann. Around this same time, she was invited to join Blue Mountain Gallery. Since that time, Marykate’s work has been featured in over a dozen of juried shows, including exhibits curated by the Art Student’s League of NY, Manhattanville College, Columbia University, the National Association of Woman Artists, Blue Mountain Gallery and several online project spaces. Her work resides in private collections across the country. Marykate’s painting has an intuitive sense that is often simultaneously representational and expressionistic. Her work is layered, left of center in its humor, with a focus on the metaphorical in our everyday world. In addition to painting, Marykate is a critically acclaimed indie-pop songwriter, who has released six albums and performed throughout the U.S. and Europe; her songs have been featured in movies and television. “A true original, Marykate has crafted a style with humor and irony intact anchored in daily life” Rolling Stone. Marykate’s painting practice is closely related to her music, “The more I paint, I feel like my paintings look like my songs sound. In both arenas I am drawn to those everyday moments that stick to you – the ones where contradictions sit comfortably side by side each other.”

“f*ck the 7th grade” is group of paintings inspired by the play of the same name, which is written and performed by Marykate’s longtime collaborator and pal Jill Sobule. “Jill’s play is the story of her life but it is also addresses the universal themes of how we internalize the unconscious bias that is embedded in our popular culture. The play is funny and has a positive message about letting your freak flag fly but is also poignant in that it brings to light the struggle faced by kids in the LGBT community who have to navigate their ‘otherness’. This exhibit is a visual exploration of these themes.”