Ani O’Neill stands as a pivotal figure in contemporary Pacific art, whose practice has consistently challenged the boundaries of craft, feminism, and cultural identity. A graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts (1994), O’Neill emerged during a transformative moment in Aotearoa’s art history in which Pasifika artists began to assert new visual languages and redefine national narratives.
Her early inclusion in landmark exhibitions such as Bottled Ocean (1994, curated by Jim Vivieaere), The Nervous System (1995), and the inaugural Asia/Pacific Triennial (1993, Queensland Art Gallery) signalled the arrival of a bold and unapologetic voice that rejected the marginalisation of Pacific art within Western institutional hierarchies.
O’Neill’s work draws deeply on the textile and handcraft traditions passed down by her Cook Islands grandmother: tīvaevae, crochet, and braiding. Her practice reclaims these techniques from accusations of being merely domestic decorative craft and elevates them as sites of aesthetic and cultural resilience. Her signature use of brightly coloured wool, recycled materials, and discount-store ephemera repositions the language of adornment and domestic labour within a feminist and postcolonial context.
O’Neill was a founding member of the Pacific Sisters, a groundbreaking collective of Māori and Pacific artists, designers, performers, and musicians who emerged in the early 1990s as a radical force in Aotearoa’s cultural landscape. The Pacific Sisters’ exhibition at Te Papa Tongarewa in 2018, Pacific Sisters: Fashion Activists, reaffirmed their legacy as cultural innovators and positioned O’Neill’s practice within a broader movement of Indigenous resistance and creative reclamation.
Described as an “artistic provocateur” and “change agent,” O’Neill’s practice often dissolves the barriers between artist, audience, and institution. Her installations and performances foster community exchange, privileging connective experience over individual authorship. The Kikau Broom Project (2019–ongoing), which began as a school fundraiser in Rarotonga, evolved into a touring exhibition that activated conversations around cultural labour, value, and visibility. In this and other projects.
O’Neill has exhibited widely across Aotearoa and internationally, and her work has been exhibited in Singapore, Taiwan, Poland, Lithuania, New York, Paris, and Rarotonga. Her work is held in major public collections including Te Papa Tongarewa, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
O’Neill continues to split her time between Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland and Rarotonga, developing modular works that evolve across contexts and communities. Her practice remains a vital force in Pacific art, feminist discourse, and the revaluation of cultural labour—reminding us that the act of making is also an act of remembering, resisting, and reconnecting.