How One Artist Is Making Every Day Life Into Art — Brendan O’Conell

Modern day life, specifically the insides of supermarkets is what distinguishes contemporary American artist Brendan O’Connell. Called by some the “Walmart Artist” – O’Connell turns banal experiences into vibrantly colored, larger-than-life pieces that depict the whimsical energy of modern consumerism. In this article, we delve into O’Connell’s artistic voyage, his influences and how his work has resonated with the contemporary art scene.

Childhood and the Beginning of His Career

Brendan O’Connell (1968, New York) went from having an unremarkable life to becoming a painter through a unique route. His career started, not in the arts, but as an Atlanta-based literature student at Emory University. O’Connell lingers a while in Europe following his graduation, and it’s there that he truly “discovered art,” as he tells it to The Hollywood Reported. Back in the States, having had no formal art education, he began to paint full-time. Kohn’s early work emphasised abstract expressionism but his style developed to include more figurative aspects.

The Walmart Series art in aisles

Brendan O’Connell is best known for his “Walmart Series” which started in the early 2000s. O’Connell was interested in the common and identical stores of Walmart, as he saw them as an icon of contemporary America. He started depicting the aisles, which included customers, products and retail culture ambiance from these stores. His paintings typically showed mundane consumer commodities comes in the garish colors of packaging, fluorescent light and day-glo tones from a cross-selection of shoppers converting the most everyday of occasions into lively dynamic compositions.

O’Connell Method and Style

This technique that O’Connell employs blends realist elements with abstraction. Using bold colors and wide brush strokes, he gives his paintings a feeling of energy and movement. This is juxtaposed against the more gestural and fluid portrayal of human forms providing an interesting counter interplay between still life and animate flesh. Although O’Connell’s work is often compared to that of Pop Art icons such as Andy Warhol, he takes an approach that allows for the mutual influence between consumerism and consumer culture in order to further investigate both while maintaining a more personal relationship with the verdure of 21st Century life.

Themes and Inspiration

On the one hand, O’Connell’s work is concerned with issues of consumerism, use and contemporary life. Airside was intrigued by the way in which consumer spaces (supermarkets) offer insight into wider cultural shifts and social customs. His paintings are a contemplation of postmodern subjectivity in a world dominated by consumerism—a portrait of the self mirroring whatever an individual opts to purchase, and by extension wants and yearns for. This language of the commonplace also suggests that O’Connell provokes audience members to question what lies beneath the surface of daily life — on even the most basic level.

Public Reception and Impact

The work of Brendan O’Connell has received major interest in art and other areas. Major Publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, and NPR have written about his art and exhibited Walmart paintings across the country as well as overseas. He has been interviewed numerous times on television, including a segment on CBS Sunday Morning that delved into O’Connell’s artistic style and influences.

The art of O’Connell reflects a hybrid aesthetic that transcends the traditional confines of high and low culture. Indeed, finding beauty and meaning in the mundane — relatability at its finest!

Collaborations and Projects

Brendan O’Connell has also worked on other creative works stylistically similar to his painting. He has collaborated with schools and community organizations in developing art education, motivating aspiring artists through his method. He is also the creator of “Everyartist. org,” a Democratizing Resource for Schools, that aims to make access to innovative art resources and projects easy — without any pricy consultants or experts needed. He also took a shot at the “Paint with me initiative” that was set up to encourage children to be creative. The nonprofit aims to get kids making things, to build self-assurance and creativity.

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