GWEN O'NEIL: Atlantic Ave
Almine Rech is pleased to present Atlantic Ave by Gwen O'Neil, in Monaco.
October 8, 2026 – January 29, 2027
Gwen O'Neil has come home. After ten years in California, the artist returned east—where she was born and raised—last year. Since moving to Brooklyn, she has been spending more time at her childhood home in East Hampton. A new body of work, presented in the show 'Atlantic Ave' at Almine Rech Monaco, reflects on her newfound yet familiar surroundings, articulating O'Neil's attention and attachment to a place that has only deepened after a decade away.
Out East, O'Neil likes to walk to the bay by her home, sometimes multiple times a day. The constantly changing colors of sea and sky reappear across these works: the thick mist of the morning, the gold of the evening, waves and wind and reflections. Changing coasts has brought an entirely new color palette to the fore, coupled with the artist's recent exploration of color theory, especially through the work of Josef Albers. Simultaneous contrast has been on her mind, bringing a new way of seeing the environment around her. O'Neil originally studied photography and takes Polaroids that provide source material for paintings.
O'Neil is aligned with a long tradition of painters drawing inspiration from Long Island, most notably Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock ("The country is wonderful," Pollock famously wrote), but also Helen Frankenthaler and the de Koonings. Krasner's breakthrough Little Image paintings were born from experiments at her Springs home, not far from where O'Neil works today. These small works, which Krasner made on a tabletop in her bedroom, came to mind as O'Neil showed me her own recent experiments in scale.
Named for a street in Amagansett that leads to the ocean, 'Atlantic Ave' seeks to articulate the quiet splendor of a moment spent in nature, as well as the timeless rhythms that undergird these single experiences. Light, water, and the movement of animals nourish her process, and now her own migration has opened a new chapter, allowing her work to cycle back, old emotions combining with new observations, all captured in breathless color and brushstroke.