Chicago-based artist William J. O’Brien works in multiple media: drawing, painting, ceramic, metal sculpture, installation, and assemblage. Inspired by Modernism, as well as the history of material usage in Outsider Art, O’Brien’s multidisciplinary practice is a search for identity and genuine expression through material and process. His prolific output in these various media offers a visual profusion of color, pattern, and exuberant excess. O’Brien has held solo exhibitions at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; Renaissance Society, Chicago; KMAC Museum, Louisville; MAD Museum, New York City; Witte De With, Rotterdam; and The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, among others. In 2014, he had his first major museum survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, curated by Naomi Beckwith. He has held residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Ucross Foundation. O’Brien has received awards from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and Artadia. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Cleveland Clinic, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Miami Art Museum, Pérez Art Museum, Hammer Museum, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. O’Brien is also a professor within the department of ceramics at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.