Paul O’Connor - Festive Feral Bowl, 2025 - Recycled clay with resin inset on glass and mirror bases - 21x37x18cm (base 2x26x26cm)

Paul O’Connor is a Perth-based artist who describes himself as a “hoarder, collector and dreamer”. Over the past 30 years he has worked in many creative fields - as an artist, lecturer, creative director, brand manager, editor, visual merchandiser and fashion stylist. Returning to his art-making practice in 2020, after a 20 year hiatus, Paul discovered the medium of ceramics.

Through his work, Paul excavates the childhood memories and personal experiences that have shaped him, exploring the complex and ever-evolving nature of personal identity. His creative process is driven by his lifelong instinct to collect and archive, both memories and materials. His distinct visual language includes a menagerie of recurring characters drawn from those formative years, from Australian native fauna to horned beasts, mermaids and cowboys. Working across various forms, including plates, bowls, vases and candlesticks, his pieces are hand-built and painted with layered glazes. His earth-toned palette and richly textured surfaces give the works the time-worn patina of ancient artefacts.

Since childhood, Paul has been drawn to rogues, outsiders and beasts rather than heroes. This impulse emerges in his work not only in his subject matter, but in his irreverent approach to form and materials. He explores the juxtapositions of masculine and feminine, wild and domestic, high art and craft, taking the typically civilised forms of everyday ceramic wares and gives them heads, tails and big dicks. He mixes the time-honoured medium of clay with stuff from the thrift shop and dollar store, sprinkling in pop references and queer innuendo, resulting in artwork that is mischievous, unfiltered and deeply personal.