OHynes

OHynes is an American interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator known for integrating visual arts with performance and technology. Born in 1978 in Chicago, Illinois, she earned a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before completing an MFA in Intermedia Practice at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Her early work was influenced by the Chicago punk and industrial scenes, which later evolved into large-scale installations that interrogate media consumption and digital identity.

In 2005, OHynes founded the pop-up art collective The Grid, which orchestrated temporary exhibitions across urban rooftops in New York City. The collective gained prominence for its collaborative projects that involved local residents and community media. She subsequently curated several exhibitions at the Walker Art Center and the Hammer Museum, focusing on gender, technology, and the boundaries of public space.

Her solo exhibitions have appeared in venues such as the Venice Biennale's A New Palette (2011) and the Guggenheim Museum (2019). A recurring theme in her practice is the use of augmented reality (AR) to layer historical narratives onto contemporary environments. In 2018, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship for her project ARPractice: Public Memoir, which deployed AR overlays at civil rights protest sites.

Additionally, OHynes teaches at Parsons School of Design where she directs the program in New Media Practices. Her scholarly writings, published in journals including Critical Inquiry and Media, Art & Cultural Studies, address virtual epistemics and challenges surrounding digital archives. While her work has won several awards, she remains committed to fostering inclusive, community-driven exhibitions that question the commodification of art and the role of technology in public discourse.