Lives and works in Chicago, USA. William J. O’Brien has had solo exhibitions at Shane Campbell Gallery, Oak Park (2010); at Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Detroit; Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York (both 2009); The Axis Mundi, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago (2007); When Your Heart Is on Fire, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, Locust Projects, Miami (2006); 12 x 12, New Artists, New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; A Fairy Tale, Ingalls and Associates, Miami (both 2005). Selected group exhibitions include Mystic Visage, World Class Boxing, Miami; At Home/Not Home: Works from the Collection of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (both 2010); Selected Works from the MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; An Expanded Field of Possibilities, Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, Santa Barbara; Reskilling, Western Front Exhibitions, Vancouver, Canada (all 2009); Now You See It, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2008); So Wrong, I’m Right, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles; Stuff: International Contemporary Art from the Collection of Burt Aaron, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (both 2007). O’Brien received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005 and his BA from Loyola University Chicago.