cereal cave | John O'Donnell
John O’Donnell’s Cereal Cave at Glass Box Gallery is an exhibition of sculptures, video and prints that focus on nostalgia, failure, fantasy and ideas surrounding the construction of mystery. His work ranges from casual constructions using breakfast cereal to highly detailed prints using a variety of traditional and experimental printmaking techniques. O’Donnell’s studio practice combines objects through different means: installation, collage, sculpture and video to reveal something else beyond the object, suggesting another meaning or resolution. His work does not point to anything specifically, but through arranging of objects he directs the viewer’s awareness to a mystery or vague experience. A video piece that will be included in the exhibition is titled GrEyEmpire is a collaboration with Seattle based musician Peter C Murray (Jean Chalant, Poor Moon).
John O’Donnell is a multidisciplinary artist and performer who uses a variety of mediums to convey a variety of messages. He lives in New Haven, CT and is an assistant professor of printmaking at the University of Connecticut. He has created performance and installation pieces for the New Britain Museum of American Art, Museum of New Art in Detroit, MI, Proof Gallery in Boston, MA, FluxSpace in Philadelphia, PA and SOHO20 Gallery in New York, NY. He has exhibited his prints at the Print Center in Philadelphia, the International Print Center in New York and Seoul Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea. His videos have been exhibited at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York and at film festivals in Boston, Los Angels, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia.
“…fantastical kitchen filled with hallucinatory video, gaudy food packaging…installation highlights the unexpected, poignant and often overlooked occurrences that arise alongside the routines of daily life.”
–NY Times, 2015
“O’Donnell uses cereal to create playfully abstracted structures that read as archways, rainbows, monuments and whatever else your imagination decides to project onto them. They are approachable and familiar yet exotic and alluring. They look like objects made to use in a ritual – a ritual most likely performed on Saturday morning before sitting down to watch Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”
– Dayton City Paper, 2014