Beer With a Painter: Mary Lovelace O'Neal

""I can mark" is a phrase Mary Lovelace O'Neal uses often. Rightly so: She has been leaving her mark since the late 1960s, both on painting and on the Civil Rights movement, particularly as a founding member of the student-led Nonviolent Action Group at Howard University, where she studied with luminary artists including David Driskel. She counted Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Fannie Lou Hamer among her mentors in the movement."

"O'Neal's paintings are rife with big marks and energetic movement, acting as declarations of presence in spaces where she wasn't welcome. In her early Lampblack series (late 1960s), she encased the fibers of her canvas with the titular powdered black pigment before moving across the entire surface with linear color. Her Whales Fucking series (1979-early '80s), on the other hand, considers the water displacement made by the aquatic mammals."

"The artist splits her time between Oakland, California, and Mérida, Mexico, where she was staying when we spoke over the phone in December. We connected over the fact that I had recently visited Jackson, Mississippi, her birthplace. There, she tells me, she was treated as a third-class citizen by segregated institutions, including the zoo, library, and art museums - where Black people were only allowed to visit on select days of the month."

Mary Lovelace O'Neal is an artist and Civil Rights activist who frequently says "I can mark." She participated in student-led nonviolent activism at Howard University and counted Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Fannie Lou Hamer among mentors. Born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1942, she experienced segregation in public institutions. She earned a BFA from Howard University (1964) and an MFA from Columbia University (1969). Her paintings emphasize large marks and energetic movement as declarations of presence; notable series include Lampblack, which encased canvas fibers in powdered pigment, and Whales Fucking, which examines water displacement. Her work balances abstraction with motifs exploring women's subtle resistance.

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