Justin Liam O'Brien

Justin Liam O’Brien (b. 1991; New York) is a narrative painter. His works portray characters, mainly male, within spaces inspired by the artist’s everyday life as well as historical painting. The artist delights in depicting the ambivalence of intimate emotions, often at bursting point or in the second after the explosion. He explores the psychological dimension of the relationship between bodies and architecture, where an individual is depicted in the solitude of an apartment or perhaps multiplied in the setting of a crowd. Justin Liam O’Brien’s very particular style of painting is immediately recognizable through its rounded forms, typical of the computer software he used as a 3D animator. His characters often bear the features of the artist himself or his family members and close friends, whereas the curvaceous lines and smooth skin of their bodies, painted in flat color tints, using a bold palette, with very few effects apart from the use of subtle color gradients, evoke the architypes of classical painting. The compositions condensed within the paintings and the rounded perspectives generate a claustrophobic and disorienting effect. As part of a lineage of Queer artists, O’Brien explores the subjects of identity, isolation, sadness and humor, set in a changing world.

His work was exhibited in solo exhibitions at Semiose, Paris; GNYP Gallery, Berlin; Marinaro, New York; Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles and the Monya Rowe Gallery in New York. O’Brien has displayed work in group exhibitions at Newchild Gallery, Antwerp; Timothy Taylor, New York; Hall Art Foundation, Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg; Public Gallery, London; CHART Gallery in New York City, Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin and Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles among others. His work was featured in articles in Elephant Magazine, Artforum and Juxtapoz among others.

O’Brien attended school at Suffolk County Community College in New York, where he was introduced to oil painting. Then, he received a BFA in Digital Arts and 3D Animation from Pratt Institute in New York City in 2016.

Justin Liam O’Brien lives and works in Brooklyn.