Opal Mae Ong
Bio & CV:
B. 1994, Los Angeles, CA
Ong lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an MFA in Painting from Hunter College (New York) and a BFA in Illustration from the School of Visual Arts (New York). Ong’s painting practice involves matte materials like acrylic and gouache, while her drawings are often monochrome and made of graphite on watercolor paper. With these materials Ong is able to make meaning of opaquely felt experiences such as unnameable desire, complicated grief and personal trauma.She borrows symbolic imagery and invents figures that participate in a reality not too far from her own. The work may appear allegorical but it never arrives at any kind of moral. Instead the figures suggest evasion, mourning, enacting self punishment, following ghosts, losing limbs and holding things dear.
Education
2021 MFA Painting, Hunter College, NY, NY
2016 BFA Illustration, School of Visual Arts, NY, NY
Solo & Two- Person Exhibitions
2023: A Spell For Refusal, Solo Exhibition, Arsenal Contemporary, NY, NY
2022: Find Yourself Alone In The Middle Of A Forest, With Tyler Krasowski, Curated by Nora Boyd, Spring/Break Art Fair, Los Angeles, CA
2021: The Conditional, Solo Online Project and 205 Hudson Gallery, Arsenal Contemporary, NY, NY
2019: Half Past, With Justin Chance, Three Four Three Four Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2019: Hereafter, Solo Exhibition, The Spite Haus, Philadelphia, PA
Group Exhibitions
2024: upcoming, Martha’s, Austin, TX
2024: upcoming, Ruby/Dakota, NY, NY
2024: Vagabond Shoes, McBride Contemporain, Montreal, Canada
2024: Game Over, Soloway Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2022: NY to Milan, F2T Gallery, Milan, Italy
2022: Twist & Shout, She BAM Art, Leipzig, Germany
2022: Graphite Stew, Upper Market Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2021: There Was Only This World, This Looted, Ventriloquized Earth, Curated by Francesca Altamura a collab with HOOK ART
2021: It Lives, 205 Hudson Gallery, NY, NY
2020: System Failure, Plastic Murs Gallery, Valencia, Spain
2019: Communion, QUAID Gallery, Tampa, FL
2019: What We Emanate, Black Ball Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2019: The Mnemonic Body, Hunter Gallery, NY, NY
2018: GIFC, Fisher Parrish Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017: Hokey Pokey, with Trey Abdella and Michael Dispena, curated by Sammy Bennett, I.M.A.G.E Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016: Crime and Punishment, School of Visual Arts Chelsea Gallery, NY, NY
Grants, Awards & Residencies
Invitational Artist in ResidenceArsenal Contemporary Art Residency, Montreal, Canada, 2022- 2023
Leeman- Boskenbaum Endowment Graduation Award, Hunter College, 2022
Stanton Grant, 2020