Spittin' Image: Jimmy O'Neal
Johnson Lowe Gallery is pleased to present Spittin' Image, an exhibition of new paintings, drawings and installations by Atlanta-born, Savannah-based artist Jimmy O'Neal, on Friday, February 21, from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. This exhibition marks O’Neal’s first presentation with Johnson Lowe Gallery.
The origins of the idiom “spitting image” or “spitten image” have long sparked debate, with theories ranging from “spit and image,” possibly referencing divine creation, to “splitting image” or even “spirit and image.” While these threads point to the idea of likeness, they fail to grasp the complexities of representation in a hyperreal age, where the boundaries between image and reality blur into simulacra. It is here that the concept of hyperreality, as defined by Jean Baudrillard in his philosophical treatise, Simulacra and Simulation, offers an illuminating lens. Hyperreality suggests that the boundary between the real and the simulated has dissolved so thoroughly that what we now perceive as “real” is a simulation in itself. In this world, AI, media, and technology begin to not only mimic reality but to reshape it altogether. This notion of the blurred lines between the real and the simulated is cheekily in conversation throughout Jimmy O'Neal's exhibition. The artist’s practice has, since the 1990’s, explored AI and other cutting-edge technologies as a mirror of the society that created it, a reflection of our collective consciousness and beliefs. This reflection often stretches across the digital, dreamlike, and physical realms—creating a space where our perception of reality is in constant flux.
In Spittin’ Image, O’Neal enlists a myriad of technological tools but focuses primarily on AI, engaging tools like image-to-image models to probe how thinking machines interpret concepts like "spitting" or "casting out." These interactions with AI bring forth new paintings and installations that offer, through O’Neal’s playful yet profound use of lens-based paint, reflections on the idea of the "spitting image," mirroring the ever-shifting, multi-layered experience of contemporary life. The paintings themselves become an embodiment of this exchange, incorporating layers of a mirrorized paint engineered by the artist and fragmented imagery that reflects O’Neal’s own act of physically spitting paint onto the canvas - as reimagined by AI. The act of spitting is both deeply personal and symbolic and serves as an emblem of a broader societal dialogue. Through this dialogue with AI, O'Neal creates multi-dimensional, abstract representations of time—where past, present, and future collapse and the boundaries between what we know and what we can imagine remain endlessly fluid.
