BIOGRAPHY
JO O'CONNOR
(b. 1972 Johannesburg, South Africa)
Aesthetically, the interplay of similarities and differences, continuity and disruption or harmonious disarray will all contribute to a balancing act present in an artwork. I explored the 1920’s Gestalt theorists in Berlin and how they examined the visual arts through the school of perceptual psychology. These ideas were embraced by camoufleurs (who designed military camouflage during the world wars) as well by as those studying visual arts, who primarily concluded that we experience the world neither as an unbroken continuum nor as a jumble of disorderly parts. Rather, it has been noted that we instinctively organize our experience as “a patchwork of detached fragments” (Paul Weiss, 1971). This instinctive grouping process may be identified into the elements of “similarity, proximity, continuity and closure” (Max Wertheimer, 1923).
In my work, the symbiosis of shape and colour, whether presented in a self-styled pattern or as elements which refer to each other, may suggest grouping processes to the viewer. As such, our innate disposition to perceive patterns with the elements Wertheimer identifies then collates into the primary Gestalt principle: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts… and it is this precarious equilibrium which I strive to realize through my paintings.
Jo O'Connor, 2018
EXHIBITIONS
2018
An Interlude, Everard Read/Circa Gallery, Cape Town
2017
Summer, Everard Read, Cape Town
Spectrum, Circa Gallery, Johannesburg
HARDLINE, Everard Read/Circa, Cape Town
2016
Winter Collection, Everard Read, Cape Town
Summer in the City, Everard Read, Cape Town
2015
Homage, Everard Read, Cape Town
Winter Collection, Everard Read, Cape Town
Empire, Everard Read, Cape Town
2013
SOLO Visage, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town
2009
Own Goal, Association of Visual Arts, Cape Town
2007
Stilte, Klein Karoo Nationale Kunsfees, Oudtshoorn
2006
‘Home/Room 516’, Spier Hotel Room Installations, Spier Hotel, StellenboshOut of Context, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town
2005
‘Home/Room 516’, Spier Hotel Room Installations, Spier Hotel, StellenboschRoutes around the World (portfolio curated by Harm Lux with Wirth & Hauser) Zurich, Switzerland
2004
Pulse, Videoart Center Tokyo, TokyoSomerfest, Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin
SOLO There, Galerie Expo 3036, Berlin
2003
Very Real Time, Cape Town
2002
Spare Change, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunsfees, OudtshoornSpier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch
SOLO Thread, Prince Albert Gallery, Prince Albert, Great Karoo
2001
Collaboration with Paco Rodrigues on YDETAG, South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2000
One City Many Cultures Festival, Cape TownTour Guides of the Inner City on Urban Futures 2000, Rembrand van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg
SOLO Muscle, Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town
1999
Want it, Collaboration with James Webb on Cape Town Art Night, Cape TownSoftserve, South African National Gallery, Cape Town
1998
SOLO Before Swallowing, Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town
1997
The Shopping Trolley Project, The River Club, Cape TownThe District Six Sculpture Festival, District Six, Cape Town
1996
SOLO Neuroglia, Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg
RESIDENCIES
2004
Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin
2003
Very Real Time, Cape Town
2000
Thupelo, Cape Town
EDUCATION
1997
Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Management, University of Cape Town
1994
Honours (Fine Art) Cum Laude , University of Natal
1993
Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art, History of Art), University of Natal