Ona Lillet

Statement

Ona Lillet is an artist interested in realms of possibility, questioning ways of living, working, and relating and advocating as a change agent. Creating multi-layered oil paintings that are built up, one decision responding to the last, a series of relationships form a journey into the depths of seeing how relationships of color, texture and shape create new ways of reaching out to what cannot be reached. Finding not a representation of an idea but the experience itself of holding oneself open, Ona’s paintings are filled with space and wonderment.

GlogauAIR Project

Aside from her continued practices in studio- painting, drawing and collaging, Ona seeks to bring play, humor, and challenge through performances as ‘Ona the Lurch’ to art spaces in Berlin. Uncomfortable in sterile, fluorescent, and often oppressive art institutions; Ona plans to engage in the act of viewership (as character Lurch) with the aim of providing sincere levity to inspire play and vulnerability when engaging with art.

Collage, Drawing, Painting, and Performance

CV Summary

Education

• 2014 Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), Chicago, IL
• 2013 Summer Course, Wood Carving and Relief Printing, Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Austria
• 2012 Winter Course, Painting and Drawing, Ox-bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI

Exhibitions

• 2022 Vibrant Life, Sprout Gallery, Providence, RI
• 2018 Natural Quandaries, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI
• 2015 At the end of winter a brittle bikini and trying to feel baby teeth, DOMUS, Chicago, IL (solo)
• 2014 Erinnerungen an ein Haus, Kunstraum Pro Arte, Hallein, Austria
• 2014 BFA Group Exhibition, The Sullivan Galleries, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• 2013 Torhaus, Hallein, Austria, Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts
• 2011 Art Bash, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• 2010 Returning Painter, PaMa, Providence, RI (solo)
• 2010 Process, Chazan Gallery, Providence, RI (solo)

Residencies & Awards

• 2023 GlougauAIR Artist in Residence, Berlin, Germany
• 2013 Merit Scholarship Recipient, Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts
• 2010 Merit Scholarship Recipient, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• 2010 RI Scholastics Art Award, Art Portfolio Winner

Gallery