BIOGRAPHY
NORMAN O’FLYNN
(b. 1971)
Norman O’Flynn is a prolific painter and sculptor who has held numerous solo shows and participated in group exhibitions, residencies and workshops across the globe – from Switzerland to Egypt, Lebanon to Zambia. His love of an interdisciplinary approach and cross-cultural collaboration add extra pep to his distinct visual language, a vocabulary of immediately and globally recognisable imagery.
“O’Flynn knows Pop to be an irresistible lure, he also knows it to be the defining symptom of human error. By trafficking inside of it, he exposes its folly and opens up its strengths. ‘The initial image grabs you and pulls you in.’ Once inside, however, we are snagged in ‘unfuckery,’ words, signs, symbols that expose Pop’s corrosive lure.”
- Ashraf Jamal
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Habitats, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2023 After the Stampede, Worldart, Cape Town, South Africa
The Rising Tide, Knysna Fine Art, Knysna, South Africa
2022 Rules for Rebels, Worldart, Cape Town, South Africa
2021 Always and Always, Worldart, Cape Town, South Africa
2020 Lovesick, WorldArt, Cape Town, South Africa
2019 Cool and Composed, WorldArt, Cape Town, South Africa
2018 Timekeeper, Art Supermarket Asia, Hong Kong
2018 GNOMON. Worldart, Cape Town, South Africa
2017 Better & Better. Worldart, Cape Town, South Africa
2016 The good, the bad and the BOOM! WorldArt, Cape Town, South Africa
2015 BANG BANG BOOM. Diedericks Faber. Johannesburg / Cape Town, South Africa
2012 Guardians. WorldArt, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Deep Down we all want to rob a Bank. Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
2009 The World Needs Me. Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
2007 Never Too Late to Be A Man, Bell Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
2005 The Bull and Other Stories, Bell Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
2005 Currency, AVA, Association for Visual Art, Cape Town, South Africa
2004 Behind the Tent, Thapong, Gaborone, Botswana
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Diepe Grond, KKKNK National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
2023 A rabbi, a doctor and a politician walk into a bar, Brutal, Cape Town, South Africa
Cosmos, Everard Read Franschhoek, South Africa
2020 Liminality in Space, AAF, Lagos, Nigeria
2019 Forward? Forward! Forward…, Stellenbosch University centenary exhibition,
US Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2019 NEL, Inaugural Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
Threesome, 19 Karen Gallery, Gold Coast, Australia
2017 Nando’s Pop-Up, SOHO, London
2016 The Space Between/The Noise Behind, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
South Africa - A Cohesive Clash, Tanya Baxter Gallery, London
Imagio Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Venice & New York
2015 Old White Men, Alma Martha Project Space, Cape Town, South Africa
2014 Sound Diary, M-Contemporary, Sydney, Australia
2011 Present/History, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 The Laboratory for Recycled Revolutions, curator Isa Suarez,
Greatmore International Artists’ Studios, Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Minor Matters. Department of Fine Arts. UFS. Bloemfontein, South Africa
Premondial Barocco, II Ramo D’oro. Naples, Italy
Conceptual Matters, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
Bristol Art Fair. Bristol
2009 The World Needs Us, Centro Luigi Di Sarro, Rome
Exchange. COWI, Copenhagen
2007 South African Art on Paper, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, Australia
2006 2006, special project (curated and conceptualized by Norman O’Flynn for 20 artists),
Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town & Johannesburg
2006 the blank paper project, as part of the Cape Biennial, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
The Heritage Cache, curated by Cobus van Bosch and Arlene Amaler-Raviv, secret location,
Cape Town, South Africa
2004 D.I.E.N.S., KKNK National Arts Festival, curator: Liza Grobler, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
2002 YDESire Art Night, curated by: James Webb and Kim Stern, Castle of Good Hope,
Cape Town, South Africa
ART FAIRS
2016-2025 Investec Cape Town International Art Fair
2023 Scope Miami, Miami, USA
2020 Sydney Contemporary, Sydney (Australia)
2019 Turbine Art Fair, represented by WorldArt Gallery
2018 Stroke International Art Fair, Munich (Germany)
2018 FNB Johannesburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (South Africa)
2017 Scope Miami, Miami (United States)
2016 Moniker Art Fair, London (United Kingdom)
COLLECTIONS
Deutsche Bank, Nando’s Contemporary Art (UK/Australia/South Africa), Hollard Insurance, Luciano Benetton,
MTN, University of Cape Town, MAP South Africa, Sanlam, Spier and private collections across the globe.
AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2017-2019 Pietra Santa Sculpture Residency, Italy
2016 IICD Residency, Nigeria
2009 Triangle Artists’ Workshop, Beirut, Lebanon
2007 ABSA L’Atelier finalist, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006 Pro-Helvetia Fellowship and residency at Altes Spital, Solothurn, Switzerland
2005 Centre for the Book, Alexandria, Egypt
2004 Thapong International Artists’ Residency, Gaborone, Botswana
2005 ABSA L’Atelier finalist, Johannesburg, South Africa
2004 Brett Kebble Art Awards national finalist, South Africa
2004 ABSA L’Atelier top 100, Johanensburg, South Africa
2003 Batapata Triangle International Workshop, Chikanga, Zimbabwe
2003 Insaka International Artists’ Residency, Rockstone Studios, Lusaka, Zambia
1992 Irma Stern Award for Excellence in Printmaking, University of Cape Town, South Africa
EDUCATION
1988-1992 BA FA, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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