ARTIST STATEMENT
Christy E. O’Connor is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in the New York metro area. She combines wearable sculpture, performance, and 2D mixed media works to create narrative bodies of work and installations. As an artist, she seeks to drive dialog that challenges the belief systems and preconceived notions, dominated by a patriarchal lens. She continuously explores materials, processes, and genres in order to express her point of view. Her vision and message often informs her use of materials and execution.
O’Connor received a BA in Visual Art from Ramapo College of New Jersey, where she studied studio art, photography, and education. She has participated in professional development programs and studio residencies, including Creative Capital at Artworks (Trenton, NJ, 2017) AlterWork Studio (LIC, NY, 2020) and ESKFF (Jersey City, NJ, 2022). Solo exhibitions and installations include The Maiden & The Crone, (2021), Eat, Buy, Love (2021), Victim Shame, Body Blame and Tea Time in Turbulence (2020), Dusklit (2016-2018), Treacherous Women (2018), Vacant Memories, Absent Dreams (2018).
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I am especially interested in how women have been perceived and portrayed throughout history, literature, and modern forms of media through the lens of the male gaze. I often wonder how patriarchal standards affect societal and cultural norms and mores as a whole, religious and social class systems and gender and sexuality.
My work often depicts female archetypes inspired by fairytales, mythologies, and historical figures in multilayered mixed media bodies of work and installations. I create maximalist works that mimic the way in which we are so frequently bombarded with imagery and notions that perpetuate patriarchal and oppressive viewpoints
© Christy E. O’Connor