Jack O’Brien
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Jack O’Brien
Semblance, 2025Grand pianos, roofing asphalt and steel wire
181 x 371 x 48 cm
71.3 x 146.1 x 18.9 inches
Positions #9: Make Some Noise: Desire. Stage. Change. Van Abbemuseum, 2026 -
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Jack O’Brien
Cue the Cue, 2025Former theatre stand made of 54 antique chairs, silver-colored coins, plexiglass and aluminum
600 x 600 x 908 cm
236.2 x 236.2 x 357.5 inches -
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News
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WorksOpen a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Installation view, Non-Specific Objects, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2024
Jack O’Brien
Return, 2023Soft pastel, spray paint, photographic print mounted on aluminium, heat-formed PETG plastic, aluminium pipe, butchers netting118.9 x 84.1 x 22 cm
46.8 x 33.1 x 8.7 inchesB-JOBRIEN-.23-0001Further images
The sculptures of Jack O’Brien, assembled by employing various found objects and repurposed materials, emphasize the ambiguity of the materials themselves. The works create confrontation with fragmented humanity. His practice...The sculptures of Jack O’Brien, assembled by employing various found objects and repurposed materials, emphasize the ambiguity of the materials themselves. The works create confrontation with fragmented humanity. His practice explores material culture through the lens of marginalized aesthetics to highlight the political histories of capitalism, and the production of desire.
Visible through layers of assemblage and melted plastic, the cherry motif is chosen by the artist as a symbol of sensuality and the erotic. The cherry maintains a constant presence within mainstream culture. Its symbolic etymology is traceable from the ancient Greeks as the elixir of prosperity to recent advertising campaigns for The United Colours of Benetton and Burberry. The appropriation of this associatevely dense and flirtatious image as the background can be seen as a nod to the fact that Jack O'Brien's work is ostensibly about desire.Exhibitions
Non-specific Objects, Capitain Petzel, Berlin, 2024
Exhibitions-
Jack O’Brien
Cascade 11 January — 22 February 2025Explore -
25 for 2025
11 January — 15 February 2025Explore -
Non-Specific Objects
Nairy Baghramian, Barbara Bloom, Monica Bonvicini, David Douard, Nikita Gale, Sanya Kantarovsky, Kristina Nagel, Jack O’Brien, Sin Wai Kin, Alina Szapocznikow, Franz West 20 January — 24 February 2024Capitain Petzel is pleased to announce the group exhibition Non-Specific Objects . The title of the exhibition acts as a counterpoint to the ideas expressed in Donald Judd’s canonical 1964...Explore
External ExhibitionsJack O'Brien, Cue the Cue, 2025
Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover
Press-
Mousse Magazine: "Jack O’Brien “The Reward” at Camden Arts Center, London"
29 October 2025 -
Kunstforum International: "Jack O’Brien"
Michael Stoeber, 3 July 2025 -
Artforum: "Jack O’Brien at Capitain Petzel"
Dominic Eichler, 1 May 2025 -
Gallerytalk.net: "Der Geschmack des Silberlöffels – Jack O’Brien bei Capitain Petzel"
Lara Brörken, 24 January 2025 -
i-D: "Jack O’Brien’s Big Reward"
Evan Moffitt, 30 October 2024 -
Interview Magazine: "Is Being an Artist a Kink?: Jack O’Brien, in Conversation With Tarek Lakhrissi"
Tarek Lakhrissi, 18 October 2024 -
THE FACE: "The radical (and very chic) artists to see at Art Basel Paris" (Jack O’Brien)
Joe Bobowicz, 18 October 2024 -
émergent magazine: "Art Basel Paris, 2024 émergent selects" (Jack O’Brien)
émergent staff, 18 October 2024 -
émergent magazine: "Jack O’Brien at Camden Art Centre"
17 October 2024 -
Frieze: "Jack O’Brien’s Charged Objects"
Jack O'Brien and Edward Gillman, 25 September 2024 -
émergent magazine: "Interview with Jack O’Brien"
Brooke Wilson -
Flash Art: "Glory Whole. Jack O’Brien"
Caroline Elbaor, 6 September 2024 -
Frieze: "Five Writers Celebrate the Work of Sarah Lucas"
Hettie Judah, Daisy Lafarge, Princess Julia, Rye Dag Holmboe and Jack O’Brien, 20 October 2023 -
Artsy: "Jack O’Brien wins the 2023 Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze"
Maxwell Rabb, 11 October 2023 -
Frieze: "Jack O’Brien Cruises for Ghosts"
Sam Moore, 23 September 2021
VideoBiography
Ph: Alexander CogginBorn 1993 in London, UK
Lives and works in London, UK
Jack O’Brien’s work explores the interplay of material, personal experience, and cultural critique. His sculptures, often made from found and repurposed objects combined with consumer materials like shrink wrap, epoxy, and fabric, evoke a sense of precarity and tension, reflecting both physical and social fragility. By forcing rigid materials into uneasy confrontations and binding them in unexpected ways, O’Brien mirrors the complexities of human relationships and identity. His abstraction destabilizes fixed forms, creating works charged with nervous energy, as if on the verge of collapse. This precariousness becomes a metaphor for broader dynamics of identity, particularly within queer cultural histories, while his materials act as ‘eloquent texts’ that engage political and personal narratives.
Jack O’Brien is currently participating with a solo presentation in Positions #9 - Make Some Noise: Desire. Stage. Change at the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, from January 31 to September 20, 2026. Recent solo exhibitions include Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2025); Camden Art Centre, London (2024); Between Bridges, Berlin (2023); and Lockup International, London (2022). Group exhibitions include Hyperborea, Kunstfestival Hallen 06, Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin (2025), Partenaires Particulaires, Fondation CAB, Saint-Paul de Vence (2025); minimal, minimal, POUSH, Aubervilliers (2025); An Uncommon Thread, Hauser & Wirth Somerset (2025); Air de Repos (Breathwork), CAPC Bordeaux (2024 – 2025); Non-Specific Objects, Capitain Petzel, Berlin (2024); and Something is Burning, Kunsthalle Bratislava (2022).
Jack O’Brien was the recipient of the Camden Art Center’s 2023 Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze. His work is included in the Pinault Collection, Paris; The Rubell Museum, Miami, FL; TANK Shanghai; and The Perimeter, London.
The following comprehensive publication has just been released in 2026: Jack O’Brien: Cue the Cue, Alexander Wilmschen, Kestner Gesellschaft (ed.), Berlin: Bierke Verlag, 144 pp., Ger./Eng. With texts by Juliette Desorgues, Kristian Vistrup Madsen, Alexander Wilmschen, and a conversation between Jack O’Brien and Jeppe Ugelvig.
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