> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Mary Lovelace O’Neal Leaves Her Mark - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/mary-lovelace-oneal-leaves-her-mark/ - Published: 2026-05-15T10:00:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-05-15T10:00:40.000Z - Description: The artist and Civil Rights activist dies at 84, The Met and Neue Galerie merge, and NADA is back with “abstracted horniness.” - Author: Hyperallergic - Tags: Daily Newsletter, Newsletter Abstract mixed-media painter Mary Lovelace O’Neal, who passed away this past Sunday, grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. At that time, cultural institutions like art museums were segregated: Black people were permitted to visit only on certain days of the month. How much has changed since those days — not least thanks to Lovelace O’Neal herself, who was active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s under the mentorship of the likes of Stokely Carmichael and Jacob Lawrence. “I can mark,” she often said. So she did, in every sense of the word. *—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor* --- [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/05/met-merger.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/manhattans-neue-galerie-to-merge-with-met-museum/) Ronald S. Lauder and Max Hollein (photo courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art) ### [Manhattan’s Neue Galerie to Merge With Met Museum](https://hyperallergic.com/manhattans-neue-galerie-to-merge-with-met-museum/) Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder’s private museum has a vast collection of Austrian and German art. | Isa Farfan SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/05/01c7f9d2-4fcd-11f1-89de-de097870deb9.jpeg)](https://www.fitnyc.edu/academics/academic-divisions/graduate-studies/advertising-campaigns/ad-campaign-art-market-studies-mps.php?utm%5Fcampaign=fr%5Fgraduate%5Fma-market-studies&utm%5Fsource=hyperallergic&utm%5Fmedium=digital-banner-ads) With hands-on, interdisciplinary coursework; high-level networking opportunities; and an engaging internship, the three-semester MA in Art Market Studies at FIT prepares students to shepherd artists in their careers, buy and sell artworks, and succeed at the business of art. [Learn more ](https://www.fitnyc.edu/academics/academic-divisions/graduate-studies/advertising-campaigns/ad-campaign-art-market-studies-mps.php?utm%5Fcampaign=fr%5Fgraduate%5Fma-market-studies&utm%5Fsource=hyperallergic&utm%5Fmedium=digital-banner-ads) --- ## Art Up Close [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/05/NADA-newsletter.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/between-tropes-and-treats-at-nada-new-york/) A visitor passes through ADA Gallery’s solo presentation of works by Ryan Browning. (photo Rhea Nayyar/**Hyperallergic*) ### [Between Tropes and Treats at NADA New York](https://hyperallergic.com/between-tropes-and-treats-at-nada-new-york/) In a sea of zany little sculptures and assemblages, shiny stuff™, abstracted horniness, and kitschy vibrancy, there were works I did enjoy. | Rhea Nayyar ### [Todd Gray Reframes Black Diasporic History](https://hyperallergic.com/todd-gray-reframes-black-diasporic-history/) His installations of layered photos drawn from an expansive Black heritage entice viewers to keep looking, find connections, and ask questions. | David S. Rubin --- SPONSORED [![CTA Image](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/05/lehman.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/lehman-college-art-gallery-presents-the-2026-thesis-exhibition/) ****Lehman College Art Gallery Presents the 2026 Thesis Exhibition** On view May 20 to 28, the show brings together over thirty undergraduate and graduate artists, reflecting a broad spectrum of conceptual inquiry and material experimentation. [Learn more ](https://hyperallergic.com/lehman-college-art-gallery-presents-the-2026-thesis-exhibition/) --- ## Community [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/05/mary-lovelace.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/mary-lovelace-oneal-painter-and-civil-rights-luminary-dies-at-84/) Mary Lovelace O’Neal (photo courtesy Jenkins Johnson Gallery New York and San Francisco) ### [Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Painter and Civil Rights Luminary, Dies at 84](https://hyperallergic.com/mary-lovelace-oneal-painter-and-civil-rights-luminary-dies-at-84/) The beloved artist was best known for monumental canvases and inventive, gestural “lampblack” works. ### [Art Movements: Michelle Millar Fisher Heads to Cooper Hewitt](https://hyperallergic.com/art-movements-michelle-millar-fisher-heads-to-cooper-hewitt/) The New York museum hires a new chief curator, Getty grants $1.8M for Black visual art archives, and an artist’s cheeky plea on the High Line. ### [Required Reading](https://hyperallergic.com/required-reading-784/) This week: artists’ antidote to AI slop, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s new memoir, New Orleans and climate change, an Art Deco train, and what do sex workers think about “Euphoria”? --- ## ICYMI [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/2026/05/ML.jpg)](https://hyperallergic.com/beer-with-a-painter-mary-lovelace-oneal/) O’Neal in her studio in Mérida (photo Karen Jenkins-Johnson) ### [Beer With a Painter: Mary Lovelace O’Neal](https://hyperallergic.com/beer-with-a-painter-mary-lovelace-oneal/) “At this marvelous hard-won age, the days of jumping and dancing with the paintings are over. But I don't feel limited,” says the artist, educator, and Civil Rights luminary. | Jennifer Samet