Jack O'Brien

Prosody I,  2025 Dead stock high heels, leather belting and steel 46 x 46 x 80 cm 18.11 x 18.11 x 31.5 inches “Oh La La! initiative returns at @artbasel , highlighting creative rehangs across participating galleries’ booths. This year’s edition is placed under the theme ‘à la mode’ and curated by celebrated journalist and fashion editor @loicprigent .” One view for the last days of Art Basel Paris with @capitainpetzel Booth B36.

‘The Reward’ at Camden Art Centre is now open, until 29th December. Thanks to everyone involved! 💕 @camdenartcentre @ginnyonfrederick @matthewbrowngallery - Installation view of Jack O’Brien, ‘The Reward’ at Camden Art Centre, 2024. Photo: Rob Harris.

My interview with curator @edward__gillman is the cover story for the October issue of Frieze We unpack a fraught moment of making work in London at the moment, and the heightened states of potential that have impacted this. We explore frenetic looseness and lineages of queer abstraction that have lead towards my exhibition ‘The Reward’ opening at Camden Art Center. Thanks to @andrewdurb1n for your crucial edits and @claudedav @lorenzklingebielofficial for trusting me with the cover. Please join for the opening of ‘The Reward’ at @camdenartcentre on October 3rd.. everyone welcome! 💃🏻

Showing some recent collages @chb_fine_arts for gallery weekend, opening Thursday, 6-9 in Berlin Text the gallery for address.. Curated by @t0ma_ss “Across the participating practices, the interior and objects associated with interior spaces appear as things half-remembered or partially evacuated. The works suggest use but resist function. The interior is presented here as an expressive system, one that speaks even in the absence of an inhabitant…” Overflow I, 2025 Magazine, shoelaces, circular saw blade, spray paint and steel plate 23.2 x 29.7 x 3.5 cm

‘Leisure’ at Morena Di Luna continues until June 20th, Open Fridays and Saturdays 2-6PM. @maureenpaley Posture
resin-filled wine bottles, springs, rope, combustion ring, epoxy putty, boning material, variable dimension
55 × 63 × 48 cm – 21 5/8 × 24 3/4 × 18 7/8 in
2026

It was such a significant moment to unpack some of the past five years, and doing this with Kristian, Juliette and Jeppe was a real gift. Kristian Vistrup Madsen’s Mythologies of Bondage reads the work through pressure, ornament and the hidden violence of everyday forms, where glamour, discipline and desire are never too far apart, some of these objects seem to slip between elegance and restraint. Juliette Desorgues’ (@juliettedesorgues )Punctuating the Flesh approaches the work as a sculptural language of marks, pauses and interruptions. Through punctuation, rhythm and repetition, she traces how forms can hold queer embodiment, suggesting bodies and futures that remain open, unfixed and in motion. In conversation with Jeppe Ugelvig (@jeppeugelvig ), the focus shifts to process: loaded objects, theatricality, grammar and the bodily experience of perception. @kestner_gesellschaft @capitainpetzel @alexander.wilmschen @bierkebooks Link in bio for copies…/ xx

‘Leisure’ …opened on Saturday at Morena Di Luna, Hove.. @maureenpaley 🌙 The show is open Fridays and Saturdays 12-6PM … running until June 20th. Massive thanks to @maureenpaley And @ginnyonfrederick ✨ // ‘A Certainty’ 2026 (Dimensions variable) Resin-filled wine bottles, shower pipe, dead-stock high heel, stockinette, PVC, wood, combustion ring, velcro reel.

We announce the opening of ‘Leisure’ the first solo exhibition by Jack O’Brien at the gallery sited in Morena di Luna, Hove. 3 Adelaide Crescent, Hove BN3 2JD 11 April – 20 June 2026 private view: Saturday 11 April 2026, 2 – 6 pm thereafter open Fridays and Saturdays 12-6pm In this new exhibition, Jack O’Brien reconfigures everyday objects through processes of twisting, binding, stretching, and puncturing, using these material interventions to probe how desire is constructed, how economies of consumption are sedimented, and how queer aesthetics operate under conditions of instability and continual transformation. This works shown attempt to be in dialogue with the Regency architecture of Morena di Luna. Curves and flourishes within the works echo the building’s baroque detailing, while his repurposed materials – sellotape, spring cords, metal, rubber, and cellophane — introduce a contemporary vernacular, recalling the language of packaging and distribution. As objects meant to be held and consumed they hold a relationship to the body, adding a physical presence to the aesthetic of industrial mass production. With special thanks to: Ginny on Frederick and Freddie Powell @ginnyonfrederick @freddiempowell Jack O’Brien @_jackobrien_ lives and works in London. In 2026, a monograph of his work, Cue the Cue, was recently published by Bierke Verlag, Berlin. @bierkebooks Solo museum presentations of his work were presented with Cue the Cue, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, @kestner_gesellschaft Germany (2025) and The Reward, Camden Art Centre, London, UK (2024) @camdenartcentre He was the recipient of the 2023 Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze London @friezeofficial Also note: a recent acquisition of Jack O'Brien's 'Volant Il' into the permanent collection of CAPC Musée d'art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France @capcmusee Seen here: A Courtesy 2026 Materials: Brass horn, sellotape, chrome-plated ball, resin filled wine bottle, bracket, cellophane. Dimensions: 24 x 24 x 26cm / 9 x 9 x 10 inches #jackobrien #sculpture #soloexhibition #morenadiluna #visit

Ginny on Frederick is pleased to announce the acquisition of Jack O’Brien’s ‘Volant II’ into the permanent collection of CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France. - First presented in ‘Air de repos (Breathwork)’ at CAPC in 2024, the work formed part of an exhibition that approached breathing as a condition shaped by intersecting political, ecological, and public health crises. Against a backdrop in which air is increasingly contested—through pollution, illness, and systems of control—the exhibition underscored the unequal distribution of something often assumed to be universal. - Jack O’Brien Volant II, 2024 20th Century French apple cart, chrome-plated steel, cellophane 415cm x 130cm x 250cm

Please join us on Thursday 5 March, 6-8pm for the launch of CUE THE CUE by Jack O’Brien published by Bierke. Published on the occasion of Jack O’Brien’s (*1993, London) most comprehensive exhibition to date, “Cue the Cue,”at the Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (April 26–July 20, 2025), this is his first monograph. Conceived by the artist himself as an artist’s book, it complements the exhibition both formally and in terms of content, documenting his practice from 2021–2025. The monograph was developed as a conceptual artist’s book and stands in direct relation to the magazine collages in the exhibition. The torn book cover, perforated paper pages, and a shoelace sealed under cellophane make the publication itself a sculptural gesture. O’Brien negotiates themes such as staging, visibility, queer identity, and the circular dynamic between consumption, body, and performance. The title refers to the English “cue”—a theatrical cue—and at the same time to its repetition. This double meaning reflects O’Brien’s working method, in which material, form, and gesture continually oscillate between suggestion and withdrawal, presence and dissolution. O’Brien works with found and discarded objects, which he transforms through gestures of wrapping, binding, and perforation. His sculptures, installations, and collages use industrial materials such as cellophane, shrink wrap, and synthetic textiles. The catalog brings together the first substantial essays on O’Brien’s work. Alexander Wilmschen introduces the exhibition, in which chance becomes the driving force of reordering, and situates O’Brien’s work within the context of queer phenomenology. Kristian Vistrup Madsen examines the sadomasochistic dimensions of the work. Juliette Desorgues reads the sculptures as embodied punctuation. In conversation with Jeppe Ugelvig, O’Brien reflects on his artistic methodology and language.

An Imposition 2025 Leather shoes, brass hunting horn, velcro reel, conductive grid tape, bandage. 18 x 23 x 97cm Excited to be showing this new work with @maureenpaley at @friezeofficial LA. Stand B15 26 February - 1 March 2026

Release Künstlerbuch – Jack O’Brien: Cue the Cue Fr, 27.2.2026, 15 Uhr mit Jack O’Brien & Alexander Wilmschen Kestner Gesellschaft, Goseriede 11, Hannover Sa, 28.2.2026, 16 Uhr mit Jack O’Brien & Alexander Wilmschen Hackbarths, Auguststraße 49A, Berlin Kommt in Hannover und Berlin zu den Releases des Künstlerbuchs „Jack O’Brien: Cue the Cue“. Das Künstlerbuch ist die erste umfangreiche Monografie des britischen Künstlers, entstanden in enger Zusammenarbeit mit ihm anlässlich seiner ersten größeren Einzelausstellung in der Kestner Gesellschaft (2025), kuratiert von Alexander Wilmschen. Es dokumentiert O‘Briens Praxis der Jahre 2021–2025 und verhandelt Themen wie Inszenierung, Sichtbarkeit, queere Identität und die zirkuläre Dynamik zwischen Konsum, Körper sowie Performance. Mit abgerissenem Einband, durchlochten Seiten und einem unter Zellophan eingeschweißten Schnürsenkel ist es selbst eine skulpturale Geste. 34 Euro Vorzugspreis bei den Events ——— Release Artist Book – Jack O’Brien: Cue the Cue Fri, 27.2.2026, 3 pm with Jack O’Brien & Alexander Wilmschen Kestner Gesellschaft, Goseriede 11, Hannover Sat, 28.2.2026, 4 pm with Jack O’Brien & Alexander Wilmschen Hackbarths, Auguststraße 49A, Berlin Join us in Hannover and Berlin for the release events of the artist’s book “Jack O’Brien: Cue the Cue.” The artist’s book is the first comprehensive monograph on the British artist, created in close collaboration with him on the occasion of his first major solo exhibition at the Kestner Gesellschaft (2025), curated by Alexander Wilmschen. It documents O’Brien’s practice from 2021–2025, exploring themes such as staging, visibility, queer identity, and the circular dynamics between consumption, body, and performance. With a torn cover, perforated pages, and a shoelace sealed under cellophane, the book is itself a sculptural gesture. 34 Euro special event price Herausgeber/Editor: Alexander Wilmschen, Bierke Verlag, Kestner Gesellschaft Texte/Texts: Juliette Desorgues, Kristian Vistrup Madsen, Jack O’Brien & Jeppe Ugelvig (Interview), Alexander Wilmschen Design: Dan Solbach Fotos/photos: Gunter Lepkowski; Volker Crone