O'Donnell studied at Camberwell College of Arts, London; University College Falmouth, Cornwall, England; University of Central England, Birmingham, England; University of Gloucestershire, Royal College of Art, England. In 1974-76 he traveled to Japan on a Japanese Monbusho Scholarship where he studied at Kyoto-Shiritsu Geijutsu Daigaku, Kyoto City University of Arts. While in Japan he continued painting, and in particular drawing. He had several exhibitions culminating with a one-person exhibition of works on paper in 1976 at the Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo. This exhibition was sponsored by the British Council and Nishimura Gallery. While on fellowship in Japan he also studied "Monumental Screen Painting of the Japanese Momoyama Period." He continued this study at the Royal College of Art (1977-79), London.
Although he had been exhibiting regularly since 1975, both in one-person and group shows, it was after exhibiting in the 1980 show British Art Now: An American Perspective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that O’Donnell tuly became an internationally recognized artist. He has exhibited extensively in New York, as well as throughout the USA, Japan, Europe, and the United Kingdom. Public venues include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Royal Academy, London; The Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and The Museum of modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; XLII Venice Biennale, Italy; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC and the IV Medellin Biennal, Colombia.
O’Donnell has been Professor of Painting at Boston University College of Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, since 1996. O’Donnell’s practices as a professional artist and as a teacher have become intertwined. The two practices are grounded in a study of nature, and in particular, growth dynamics. Begun during a two-year fellowship in Japan, this study has expanded to examine the ways an impression of nature is recreated in art—not by replication—but by creating symbolic forms that are a reflective, dynamic patterning of our perceptions.