Kevan Joseph Oconnor

There are things I don’t know how to say with words.

My interaction with the canvas centers around the problem of articulation: how so much that our bodies synthesize feels out of reach with limited, verbal language.

The paintings I make stumble earnestly towards a pronounced connectedness -- a common warmth to draw towards. Drawing and moving color around I sit patiently on the floor, metaphorically holding hands with the Present Tense -- allowing the tensions that arrive to have space and agency and voice.

Like the rudimentary task of drawing fire from the earth, I dig into the non-verbal interior seeking light. I use pencils and pastels, brooms and the handles of broken wooden tools, I finger paint with pigments and mediums until textures and contrasts form a deep harmony, I use ruined paint brushes to create marks I couldn't intentionally make, until a structure of understanding and deep compassion arises on the canvas, and then I stop.

Selected:

Number:inc Magazine / Rockwall Gallery — “Cosa Nostra” Group Show
Nashville, TN | 2024

Vol State College — “Locus Solus” Group Show
Gallatin, TN | 2024

Cëcret by Cë Gallery — “Group Show No. 2”
Nashville, TN | July 2023


Red225 Gallery — "CLUMSY" Solo
Nashville, TN | 2023

Rockwall Gallery — "Unfinished Works" Group Exhibit
Nashville, TN | 2023

Geodis Soccer Stadium — "Nashville in Rhythm" Season Long Soundwaves Gallery Group Exhibit
Nashville, TN | 2023

Red225 Gallery — "A Taste of Things to Come" Group Show
Nashville, TN | 2023

Stamford Art Association — “Faber Birren National Color Award Exhibit” (Selected by Laura Einstein of The MET NYC)
Stamford, CT | 2022

Galerie Tangerine — “December Salon Show”
Nashville, TN | 2022

The Art Center — “Contemporary Abstract”
Dover, NH | 2022

Rockwall Gallery — “A Group Show For October”
Nashville, TN | 2022

San Fernando Valley Arts & Cultural Center – “In The Abstract”
Encino, CA | 2022

Cëcret by Cë Gallery – Kevan Joseph O’Connor and Lance Scruggs -- Gallery debut opening show
Nashville, TN | 2022

Tennessee Titans Foundation, Fort Houston Group Show and Gala — “Titans Art Show”
Nashville, TN | 2021

Tennessee Valley Museum of Art – “Emergence”
Tuscumbia, AL | 202...