Capitain Petzel announced the representation of London-based artist Jack O’Brien. A selection of new sculptures will be on view at our booth B36 at Art Basel Paris 2024. The artist's first solo exhibition at Capitain Petzel will open in January 2025.
Jack O’Brien’s erotically charged sculptures start from found objects that have a direct relation to the body in their human scale: musical instruments, industrial materials and aluminum balls, which the artist wraps and stretches to the point of abstraction, surrounding them with the materiality of consumer society, shrink wrap, epoxy, fabric, cable ties and PETG plastic.
Through these material clashes, O’Brien challenges notions of form and function with works that appear charged with nervous energy, as if on the verge of collapse. This precariousness becomes a metaphor for the broader, often fraught, dynamics of identity, particularly within the context of queer cultural histories and the lineage of queer abstraction. The artist employs abstraction not to obscure meaning, but to open up new ways of engaging with political and personal narratives.
I’m interested in reading materials as ‘eloquent texts’, you could say, imbued with cultural and historical meanings related to the body. I try to emphasize the fluidity and lustre of the materials I’m using. – Jack O’Brien
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