Artist CV

(b 1972ZA. Lives and works in Cape Town)

O’Connor’s work explores the clash of uncertainty and routine that pervades our everyday lives through the composition of repetitive and random formal elements. In a style that recalls hardedge abstraction, she employs an intuitive vocabulary of shape, colour and line to develop carefully considered, rhythmical works. “For the works which Art Gazette has acquired, I have pared down my vocabulary by using coloured pencils and limiting the colours and type of shapes used. The shapes are hand drawn with repetitive lines, which create a vibrancy in spite of their simplicity, and are arranged with the aim of reaching an unsteady equilibrium.”

2018

An Interlude, Circa / Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

2013

Visage, Association of Visual Arts (AVA), Cape Town 

2004

There, Galerie Expo 3036, Berlin 

2002

Thread, Prince Albert Gallery, Prince Albert, Great Karoo 

Muscle, Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town 

1998

Before Swallowing, Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet, Cape Town 

1996

Neuroglia, Rembrandt Van Rijn Gallery, Market Theatre, Johannesburg 

2021

Elixir, 131A Gallery, Cape Town 

2020

Assimilate, 131A Gallery, Cape Town 

IMAGO, Everard Read Gallery, Franschoek 

On Being, Everard Read Gallery, Franschoek 

Untitled, 131 A Gallery, Cape Town 

Still, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

Summer, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

2019

Nano 3.1, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town 

Winter, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

2018

Summer, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

2017

Winter Collection, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

Spectrum, Circa / Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg 

Hardline, Circa / Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town

2016

Summer in the City, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

Winter Collection, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

Homage, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

2015

Winter Collection, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

Empire, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 

2009

Own Goal, AVA, Cape Town 

2007 

Stilte, Klein Karoo Kunsfees, Oudshoorn 

Home/Room 516, Spier Hotel, Stellenbosch 

2006

Out of Context, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town 

Home/Room 516, Spier Hotel, Stellenbosch 

2005

Routes Around the World Portfolio, curated by Harm Lux, Wirth & Hauser, Switzerand 

Pulse, Videoart Centre Tokyo, Tokyo 

2004 

Somerfest, Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin 

Very Real Time, curated by Gregg Smith, Cape Town 

2003

Spare Change, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Karoo Nasionale Kunsfees, Oudshoorn 

2002 

Gardenism, Spier Outdoor Sculpture Bienniel, Spier Hotel, Stellenbosch 

Filling, YDETAG, South African National Gallery, Cape Town 

2001

Fridge Project, One City Many Culture Festival, Cape Town 

2000

Johannesburg as at March 2000, Urban Futures, Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, JHB 

Fridge Project, Cape Town Art Night, Cape Town 

Fridge Project, SOFTSERVE, South African National Gallery, Cape Town 

1999

Like it (But Can't Afford it), collaboration with James Webb, Cape Town Art Night 

1998

Snack Corridor, Shopping Trolley Project, River Club, Cape Town

1997

Expecting, The District Six Sculpture Festival, Cape Town 

2004

Karl Hofer Gesellschaft, Berlin 

2003

Very Real Time, Cape Town

2000 

Thupelo, Cape Town 

Coulson, M. 'Welcome to a new find', Financial Mail. May 24 1996, p 106. 

Edmunds, P. “A Total Scoop’ , Artthrob. http//www.artthrob.co.za/99nov/reviews.html 

Edmunds, P. 'KKNK', Artthrob. http//www.artthrob.co.za/02apr/reviews.html 

Edmunds, P. 'Jo O'Connor at the Mark Coetzee Fine art Cabinet', Artthrob. 

http//www.artthrob.co.za/00may/reviews.html 

*Edmunds, P. (ed). Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial. Bell-Roberts: Cape Town, 2002. 

Pollak, L. 'Eloquent Silence of the Tongues', Cape Times. 25 April 2000, p7. 

Murinik, T. 'Spier Outdoor Sculpture Festival', Artthrob. 

http//www.artthrob.co.za/02jan/reviews.html 

Murinik, T. 'Feeding Frenzy', Mail & Guardian. July 3 - 9 1998, p11. 

http//www.mg.co.za/art/fineart/9807/980702-oconnor.html 

Murinik, T. 'More about Art Night', Artthrob. 

http//www.artthrob.co.za/99apr/news.html#artnight 

Roper, C. 'Object d'art', SL. September 1998; Vol 5 no 8, p22. 

Shantall, L. 'Experiments in time and place', Art South Africa. Vol 2 Issue 2 Summer 2003 pp16-17. 

*Smith, G & De Bondt, S (eds). Very Real Time . Die Keure,: Belgium, 2004. Website: www.veryrealtime.co.za 

*Soudein, C & Meyer, R. (ed.s) The District Six Public Sculpture Project. Cape Town, 1997. 

Stephen, J. 'Fresh Face: Jo O'Connor (27) Artist', SL. June 2000, p32. 

Van Bosch, C. ‘Kos as medium…’, Die Burger. 20 June 1998, p20. 

*Van den Berg, C; Smith, K; Burger, L (ed.s) KKNK 2002. Bell-Roberts: Cape Town, 2002. Wallace, L. http://www.houseandgarden.co.za/home/hardline/ 

Spier, Hollard, Nando's, and private collections in South Africa, the UK and Germany 

1994

BA Honours Fine Art (Cum Laude), University of Natal 

1998

Post Graduate Diploma of Museum Management, University of Cape Town