Erasure and Shape
Nancy Sever Gallery, City Walk Canberra
6th March- 3rd April 2022.
Opening 12 pm – 4 pm Sunday 6th March.
Derek O’Connor Erasure and shape
To be a painter in the 21st century is to swim in an ever-expanding matrix of technology, special effects, photographic processes and art created using installation, video and performance.
Making art historical references in your work means selecting from a monstrous array of art movements in a world rife with political, environmental and humanitarian issues that are all potential fodder for art. Conceptually you can be tightly focused or as multifarious as you wish.
Concurrent with my interest in the recuperation of anachronistic technologies – books, expressive painting – lies a deep commitment to the medium of paint as a vehicle to embed meaning through a process of application and erasure.
Given the saturated world of images in which we live, with this new body of work I wanted to slow down, to look into rather than just scan the surface of these ghost-like shapes as they slowly reveal their fugitive form through paint and erasure.
The question becomes not what to paint but how to paint.
These days the Artist Statement is an almost obligatory appendage to an artist’s commercial exhibition catalogue, yet it’s an enterprise that can be somewhat fraught as it pits explanatory rhetoric against ocular sensation.
In a profile of the artist David Salle for the New Yorker published nearly 30 years ago the American essayist Janet Malcolm wrote: ‘I have never found anything any artist has said about his work interesting’. Salle said (in his obituary of Malcolm published in ArtForum last year), that once his vanity recovered ‘the veracity of [her] verdict was clear’, although ‘at odds with the prevailing reverence for that peculiar literary artifact, the artist’s statement… Like any good analyst, she was only interested in the story behind the story.’
And the story behind the story in Erasure and shape is the paintings.
To read or view, the choice is yours.
Derek O’Connor
22/02/2022
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Notations. The son and heir of nothing in particular: one more time for the record.
Nancy Sever Gallery, Canberra
2017
At Home He’s a Tourist, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
2016
Hundstage Watters Gallery, Sydney
2014
Pink Watters Gallery, Sydney
2010
A New Body of Work and Lesser Known Appendages Watters Gallery, Sydney
2009
Lost in a Kiss Commissioned Installation, 2009 & 2010 Allens Arthur Robinson, Deutsche Bank Building, Sydney
While you were art, new prints Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
Paintings Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
Works on Paper 2009, Legge Gallery, Sydney
2007
Derek O’Connor: 10 Year selection curated by Mark Van Veen, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra
Reciprocal Translocations 2 Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2006
Paintings Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
2005
Collapsible Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
2004
Paintings Legge Gallery, Sydney
Derek O’Connor: Recent Work Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
2002
Paintings Legge Gallery, Sydney
2001
Paintings Legge Gallery, Sydney
Reciprocal Translocations First Floor Gallery, Melbourne
2000
Paintings Legge Gallery, Sydney
1999
Pairs Legge Gallery, Sydney
1998
Cabin Fever Lovers Gallery, Melbourne
1997
Cold Stripp Gallery, Melbourne
New Works Legge Gallery, Sydney
1996
Paintings Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart
1995
Paintings Legge Gallery, Sydney
1994
Paintings Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart
1993
Paintings Legge Gallery, Sydney
1992
Paintings Legge Gallery, Sydney
Group Exhibitions
2015
B5761626572 Derek O’Connor, Christoph Preussmann, Paul Uhlmann, Robert Cleworth, Hamilton Darroch. M16, Canberra
2014
Velocity Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
Muswellbrook Art Prize, Muswellbrook
2012
Melbourne Artfair 2012 Waters Gallery, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
2011
Intersections Christoph Preußmann, David Jolly, Johnathan Nichols, Derek O’Connor, Merryn Bowan. Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie, Köln,Germany.
Gleam of Light, curated by Helen Maxwell M16 Gallery, Canberra
2010
The Navigators Lionel Bawden, Penny Byrne, Nicholas Folland, Locust Jones, Rhys Lee, Rob Mchaffie, Derek O’Connor, Alex Spremberg, Madonna Staunton. Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
Audiable Surface GW Bot, Greg Hodge, Kensuke Todo, Derek OConnor , Ria Vavianos, Savanhdary Vongoothorn. M16 Gallery, Canberra ACT
Art Month Sydney Watters Gallery, Sydney
Melbourne Artfair 2010 Watters Gallery, Royal Exhiition Building, Melbourne
Something in the Air – collage and assemblage in Canberra Region Art Canberra Museum and Art Gallery, Canberra
Black and White Monash Gallery of Art Travelling Exhibition (photography)
2009
Derek O’Connor and Richard Larter Works on Paper, Legge Gallery, Sydney
To whom it may concern: the written word in contemporary art Young- Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Del Kathryn Barton, Lily Hibberd, Locust Jones, Nell, Elizabeth Newman, Derek O’Connor, Sanja Pahoki, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
Blake Prize National Art School, Sydney
John Bartley, Vivienne Ferguson, Derek O’Connor Legge Gallery, Sydney
2008
The Fall of the Night Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
Retroactive Curated by Julian Laffan Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
2007
Them curated by Steven Zagala, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
Myself by Myself Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra
The Mosman Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria
Prometheus Visual Arts Award All Saints Anglican School, Merrimac, Queensland
2006
Who cares? Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney
Landscape Show Legge Gallery, Sydney
2005
Muswellbrook Open Art Prize Muswellbrook Regional Arts centre, NSW
Legge Gallery at Big Star Gallery, Adelaide
Deep Purple, curated by Rosalind Drummond, Manning Clark House, Canberra
Summer Show Legge Gallery, Sydney
2004
Del Kathryn Barton, Cathy Blanchflower, Derek O’Connor, Monika Tichacek, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
Melbourne Art Fair 2004 Karen Woodbury & Legge Gallery, Royal exhibition Building, Melbourne
2003
Collage Legge Gallery, Sydney
Scratch the Surface-Recent Portraiture Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
Summer Show Legge Gallery, Sydney
SHIT: Vivienne Binns in collaboration with Derek O’Connor & Geoff Newtown, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Canberra
2002
It’s a beautiful day: New Painting in Australia 2 The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne, AGNSW, Sydney
Melbourne Art Fair 2002 Legge Gallery, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
The Redlands Westpac Art Prize Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney
Summer Show Legge Gallery, Sydney
2001
Coincidence: an exhibition of abstract painting: curated by Geoff Newton, Spiral Arm Gallery, Canberra
Legge Gallery Artists Use Atelier Artists’ Acrylics Legge Gallery, Sydney
2000
On the brink: abstraction of the 90s curated by Kelly Gellatly, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Seventh Australian Contemporary Art Fair Legge Gallery, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Ten Years Legge Gallery, Sydney
Summer Exhibition Legge Gallery, Sydney
1999
Tenants Show Artspace 71, Kingston, Canberra
Contemporary Australian Paintings from the Allen Allen & Hemsley Collection UTS Sydney
Group Show Legge Gallery, Sydney
Show (with Peter Vandermark) Artspace 71, Canberra
10th Summer Exhibition Legge Gallery, Sydney
Duo (with John Vella) Dick Bett Gallery, Hobart
1998
Tenants Show Spiral Arm Gallery, Canberra
Go Home, There’s Nothing to See Spiral Arm Gallery, Canberra
Sixth Australian Contemporary Art Fair Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Christmas Show Legge Gallery, Sydney
1997
Living with Art Spiral Arm Gallery, Canberra
Recent Acquisitions National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Alumni Painting Show Photospace, Canberra School of Art, Canberra
Sanguine Valediction Legge Gallery, Sydney
Wer Schutzt un Fuor HANSI? Kunstwerk Kard, Cologne Art Fair 1997, Germany
First Love: Paintings by Derek O’Connor and Robert Cleworth Legge Gallery, Sydney
1996
Dirty Surface Stripp Gallery, Melbourne
Snow Stripp Gallery, Melbourne
Restless and Messy curated by Bala Starr, Contemporary Arts Centre South Australia, Adelaide
Acquisitions of Contemporary Australian Art National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
First Love: Paintings by Robert Cleworth and Derek O’Connor Legge Gallery, Sydney
Fifth Australian Contemporary Art Fair Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Abstraction Now curated by Simeon Kronenberg, touring exhibition
Fuss, Gallery Constantinople, Queanbeyan
1995
Drawings Part B Legge Gallery, Sydney
Carlos Raz Studio 12, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne
Chameleon: A Decade Contemporary Art Services Tasmania, Long Gallery, Hobart
The Derwent Collection: Australian Art of the 1980s and 1990s Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
Summer Exhibition Legge Gallery, Sydney
1994
Zac Patafta 108 Gertrude Street, Melbourne
Fourth Australian Contemporary Art Fair Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne
Artists Don’t Believe in Sanity Clause Legge Gallery, Sydney
1993
Moet & Chandon Touring Exhibition
A Show of Strength Dick Bett Gallery, Tasmania
Canberra Contemporary Art Fair Australian National University Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra
The Allen Allen and Hemsley Collection Westpac Gallery, Melbourne
Tempest Legge Gallery, Sydney
1992
Thickness Legge Gallery, Sydney
1991
When Love Blooms Legge Gallery, Sydney
Works On Paper Legge Gallery, Sydney
Group of Five Legge Gallery, Sydney
1990
Works from the Studios Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra
Sue Andrews, Derek O’Connor, Glenn Murray Legge Gallery, Sydney
1989
Eastern States, Western States Beach Gallery, Perth
1988
Persistent Memories EMR Gallery, Sydney