World-Renowned Artist & Alum’s Artwork Featured in Texas Art Museum

Artwork by Lion alumna Robyn O’Neil was recently acquired for display by the McNay art museum in San Antonio, Texas. O’Neil’s work, “Right and Left (After Winslow Homer)” is a graphite drawing that depicts an interpretation of the aftermath of the 1909 painting “Right and Left” by fellow American artist Winslow Homer. While Homer’s art shows a hunter shooting down a pair of ducks, O’Neil’s art removes the hunter and positions the ducks as diving in synchrony into the water below.

O’Neil graduated from Texas A&M University-Commerce (now East Texas A&M University) with a BFA in Art in 2000. She has also studied at Kings College in London and earned a University Fellowship from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001. In 2004, she received a prestigious honor as her work was featured in the Whitney Biennial, considered the longest-running and most important survey of contemporary art in the United States, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

O’Neil’s work is currently featured in museums and public galleries across the globe, such as the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, and the Microsoft Corporation Art Collection in Redmond, Washington.

Founded in 1954, the McNay museum’s collection began with the gift of more than 700 works and a 24-room home (plus surrounding land) in the will of San Antonio resident Marion McNay. Upon its founding, the McNay was the first modern art museum in Texas. Currently, the museum houses more than 22,000 items.