Tomorrow: Reginald O'Neal — "They Dreamt of Us"

Opening November 20th:
Reginald O'Neal
They Dreamt of Us

Spinello Projects presents They Dreamt of Us by Reginald O’Neal. Building upon his debut exhibition at the gallery, At the Feet of Mountains, O’Neal continues his practice of translating his embodied experience into realistic paintings. The exhibition features a suite of new works of an ongoing series representing portraits and still-lives that reflect the artist’s distinct perspective of life, on view at the Gesamtkunstwerk Building located at 2930 NW 7th Avenue. A special locals-only preview reception will take place Saturday, November 20, 6-10pm. Miami Art Week vernissage will take place Tuesday, November 30, 11am-4pm. Exhibition through January 15, 2022. Free and open to the public.

The gallery will continue to take health and safety precautions. Please do not visit the gallery if you are feeling unwell. Gallery visitors and staff will be required to wear a mask at all times. Hand sanitizer will be available at the gallery entrance. Please observe social distancing guidelines of six feet with all other visitors and staff. We truly appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

O’Neal’s influences primarily derive from the late impressionist painter, Joaquin Sorolla. O’Neal paints with the same drive to capture his visual field, which includes intimate portrayals of his family and community, and the objects and spaces they own. These paintings render specific scenes that express a deep affect of reverence and veneration for quotidian people, places, and things. O’Neal’s perspective comes precisely from his standing point as his means of documenting and sharing tangible vignettes of what he sees.

These works provide detailed impressions of present and past realities of people in a sense of place. Nature, childhood, fatherhood, motherhood, and adulthood, are all reflected in these works with quiet stillness and are manifested in relation to the poetic tension of displacement, self-expression, and bondage. A suite of paintings depicts six portraits of persons of varying degrees in relation to the artist, including one painting of a Golden Trumpet tree. O’Neal takes pleasure in convincing others of the beauty in the world as a means of shifting perspectives towards a positive appreciation for life. Each painting is intended to show the subject in their most pure, natural, and honest form, yet the details of each subject give context to who this person is and what they represent or where they come from.

Each painting is its own visual story but they all connect in their ability to compose the beauty of the past, present, and the continuous. The questions of what and who is of value, what and who is consistent, and how that shapes us is posed in this presentation of documentary paintings.

Available works click here ▸