Peter O'Brien Art-Home

“O’Brien elaborates on and questions Finnegans Wake as an ‘unreadable’ book and calls it ‘communist’ … He is right – and he does something about it: he puts into practice a counter strategy. If the book is unreadable, it may be ‘writeable.’ ”

GERMAN-IRISH ART HISTORIAN CHRISTA-MARIA LERM HAYES IS PROFESSOR OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM. SHE HAS CURATED EXHIBITIONS IN IRELAND, SOUTH KOREA, RUSSIA, FRANCE, AND THE NETHERLANDS.

“On the walls … were the jaw-dropping creations of Peter O’Brien, who had taken the pages of … Finnegans Wake and artfully filled them with colourful annotations and illustrations … I told him I’d love to have an entire book of this. He shared with me a sneak preview of some of the other pages and they are incredible.”

PETER QUADRINO RUNS THE “FINNEGANS, WAKE!” BLOG DEVOTED TO FINNEGANS WAKE AND THE HOMEPAGE FOR THE FINNEGANS WAKE READING GROUP OF AUSTIN, TEXAS.

“What a delight to find such an astute defender of the radical aspiration in art! It is increasing hard to find people who love, and take pleasure in art of purposeful difficulty. You provide an exquisite example of the textual play that nearly every phrase in the Wake animates! Wonderful!”

R. BRUCE ELDER, FRSC, IS A FILMMAKER, WRITER, AND PROFESSOR IN THE SCHOOL OF IMAGE ARTS & GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE, RYERSON UNIVERSITY, TORONTO.

“… stunning and constantly shifting ingenuity … O’Brien’s sinuous and insinuating text babbles like a brook, flows like a stream, trickles and pools like something spilled and sticky.”

GARRY LEONARD IS A PROFESSOR IN THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, AND A MEMBER OF THE FACULTY OF THE INNIS GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CINEMA, AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. HIS BOOKS INCLUDE READING DUBLINERS AGAIN: A LACANIAN PERSPECTIVE (1993).

“Joyce’s universe is vividly presented, and Peter O’Brien’s artwork adds yet more illustrative and intellectual layers onto this rich, inclusive, varied, and variable book.” 

CONGRONG DAI IS A PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CHINESE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AT FUDAN UNIVERSITY, SHANGHAI AND CO-DIRECTOR OF THE CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE FOR SCOTLAND, UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH. HER TRANSLATION OF BOOK I OF FINNEGANS WAKE WAS AWARDED CHINA’S INFLUENTIAL BOOK OF 2012 AWARD.

“Wonderful project … Peter O’Brien fa cose fantastiche …”

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF PAVIA, ITALY, FOUNDED IN 1778.

“A subtle symbiosis of simplicity and difficulty … mesmerizing … not mere illustrations of Finnegans Wake, but an interaction of the creator with the text, and a dialogue between them.”

TAMAR GELASHVILI IS ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT IVANEJAVAKHISHVILI TBILISI STATE UNIVERSITY IN TBILISI, GEORGIA. SHE HAS PUBLISHED PAPERS ON LEWIS CARROLL, T. S. ELIOT, AND SHAKESPEARE IN FINNEGANS WAKE.

“A colorful landscape … O’Brien helps us see the text … teaches us a new approach to reading.”

YAELI GREENBLATT TEACHES AT THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM. SHE WORKS ON VISUAL ART INSPIRED BY FINNEGANS WAKE.

“Joyce needed only words, but struggled to leave the space of his text alone. In glorious colour, Peter O’Brien here extends this principle and packs material into every spare space.” 

FINN FORDHAM IS A PROFESSOR IN 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE AT ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. HE CO-EDITED AND WROTE THE INTRODUCTION FOR THE OXFORD WORLD’S CLASSICS EDITION OF FINNEGANS WAKE (2012).

“Finnegans Wake refuses to stay in its box and, as O’Brien demonstrates, it lures brave, brilliant accomplices dedicated to giving the book wings.”

DENIS BOYLES IS A JOURNALIST, EDITOR, AND AUTHOR, BASED IN FRANCE. HIS BOOKS INCLUDE EVERYTHING EXPLAINED THAT IS EXPLAINABLE: ON THE CREATION OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA’S CELEBRATED 11TH EDITION (2017).

“A garden of delights.”

TIM CONLEY IS THE GRADUATE PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE AT BROCK UNIVERSITY, ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO. IN 2016 HE HELD THE JAMES M. FLAHERTY VISITING PROFESSORSHIP AT TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN.

“Courageous and exciting.”

JIM SHEDDEN IS A PUBLISHER, CURATOR, FIMLMAKER, ARTS PROGRAMMER, AND WRITER. BASED IN TORONTO, HE IS WORKING ON AN EXHIBITION INSPIRED BY HOME MOVIES, AND A BOOK INSPIRED BY CANADIAN AVANT-GARDE CINEMA.

“O’Brien does not represent an organized, collective movement, instead having much in common with art brut: the kind of work produced by solitary figures on the margins of the institutions and markets of the art world, thus bearing witness to another kind of freedom.”

DAVID SPURR IS PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT THE UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE, SWITZERLAND. HIS BOOKS INCLUDE ARCHITECTURE AND MODERN LITERATURE (2012) AND JOYCE AND THE SCENE OF MODERNITY (2002).

“Evocative of the traditional Persian art of illuminated manuscripts … O’Brien’s illustrative interpretations highlight and draw out Joyce’s idiosyncratic and multilayered words.”

AKRAM PADRAMNIA IS AN IRANIAN-CANADIAN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR. SHE IS TRANSLATING JAMES JOYCE’S ULYSSES INTO PERSIAN, AND SHE HAS WRITTEN FOUR NOVELS IN PERSIAN.

“Absorbing and marvelous … magma flows of letter and daub.”

SARAT MAHARAJ IS PROFESSOR OF VISUAL ART AND KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS AT MALMO ART ACADEMY, SWEDEN. HIS CURATORIAL OBJECTS HAVE BEEN EXHIBITED AT THE SAO PAULO BIENNALE AND DOCUMENTA (KASSEL).

“Part homage, part autopsy, The echo is where sees O’Brien interpolating his own researches and ruminations into the pages of Joyce’s monumental literary folly.” 

BETTY ANN JORDAN IS A TORONTO-BASED ARTS COMMENTATOR AND CULTURAL TOUR MAVEN. SHE WAS AN EDITOR AT CANADIAN ART AND CURRENTLY GIVES SEMINARS THROUGH CLASSICAL PURSUITS.

“Une sorte de symphonie chaotique, comme le ferait un musicien capable de jouer sur différents instruments des notes, des tempos, des mélodies et des sons bizarres à la fois.”

JOSEPH BRANCO IS A QUEBEC-BASED ARTIST. HIS WORKS ARE IN THE COLLECTIONS OF THE MUSEE NATIONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DU QUEBEC, LE MUSEED’ART CONTEMPORAIN DE MONTREAL, AND THE MUSEE REGIONAL DE RIMOUSKI.

“… the labor and skill and imagination that went into taking the words of the Wake and transforming them into something so wildly and beautifully new gives it a more intense depth than I’ve seen in any other painting or visual art. What more can I say, except thank you, Peter O’Brien, for this treasure.”

MARGOT NORRIS IS CHANCELLOR’S PROFESSOR EMERITA AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE. HER PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE THE VALUE OF JAMES JOYCE (2016).

Clay

Wire Paintings

Photo Paintings

The Uncertainty Principles

PETER O'BRIEN ART

LOTS OF FUN WITH
FINNEGANS WAKE

EXHIBITIONS

PUBLICATIONS

TESTIMONIALS

International exhibitions and collections

2022

2020

2019

2018

2017

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

International reviews, testimonials and commentary

Explore other art projects by the artist

Happy To Hear From You!

PETER O'BRIEN ART

LOTS OF FUN WITHFINNEGANS WAKE

EXHIBITIONS

PUBLICATIONS

TESTIMONIALS

International exhibitions and collections

2022

2020

2019

2018

2017

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

International reviews, testimonials and commentary

Explore other art projects by the artist

Clay

Wire Paintings

Photo Paintings

The Uncertainty Principles

Happy To Hear From You!

LOTS OF FUN WITH
FINNEGANS WAKE