“Art can change the world, one atom at a time. Nobody is the same but we are all alike. Good enough art is the type that can start a compelling conversation about something we didn’t know”.
TOC 2025
Exhibitions
Al Riwaq Art Space - Kingdom of Bahrain, June-September 2025
Data/Human - Curated by Al Riwaq Curatorial Committee
As our lives become increasingly entangled with the digital, the boundaries between lived experience and online representation continue to dissolve.
Data/Human reflects on how data shapes identity, influences consciousness, and affects our ability to connect, choose, and resist.
Featuring local, regional, and international artists working across diverse mediums, the exhibition critically examines the interpretation and application of data in relation to the human condition.
It asks: What does it mean to be conscious, to choose, and to connect in a world that rarely pauses—and what is mankind’s role in what comes next.
Title: I am not sure if its me
Title: Untitled Matrix 02
Title: Serene Youth Worker
ILKON, Ilkeston Contemporary Art - Ilkeston, Great Britain, July-August 2025
WHAT WE MAKE OF THE RUINS - Curated by Ruby Waage Townsend
In the wake of the ruins, what do we make of what remains? When the structures that once promised safety have crumbled, when the systems that once claimed to protect us have fallen to dust, what is left for us to hold, to rebuild, to reclaim?
This exhibition is a reflection on that very act of reclamation. A call to those who have known the wreckage - whether born of the earth or the heart, whether shaped by the world or forged in silence.
GalleryX - Dublin, Ireland, July - August 2025
Salon of Diúltaíodh / Salon of the refused - Curated by Ismael Claxton
In 1863, a group of artists rejected by the official Paris Salon sparked something unexpected — not just an exhibition, but a movement. The Salon des Refusés became a turning point in art history, opening space for bold, new voices and reshaping the future of creativity.
The Salon includes works by over 60 artists who were rejected by Irish institutional shows, most notably the RHA Gallery's Annual Exhibition.
Visual Arts Trail, Oxmantown N.S - Birr, Co. Offaly, Ireland, August 2025
SIGN, SYMBOL, WORD - Curated by The Project Twins
What are the signs, symbols and words that shape our communities and surroundings? From the typography and shop signs of Birr to pictograms and poetry, Sign Symbol Word is an interdisciplinary trail exploring the richness of language and creativity. It invites us to celebrate – and question – where our languages come from and how we can better communicate with each other and the world around us.
Title: Oppenheimer’s Emotional Electron (Triptych) 9cm x 39cm
Projects
Current
Glass Work
Commissions
Requests for portraits of people and pets welcome.
Artist Statement
Thomas O’Connor’s practice of enquiry underpins his exploration of the nature of “Youth work” in challenging environments. Straddling a spectrum from studio based to socially engaged processes he creates artworks across different media; drawing, text, painting, glass and events. Drawing on an archive collected over twenty years documenting his and others experiences in the sector he teases out dialectic themes relating to the practice of making the world a better place. His current body of work in kiln formed glass is a series of urbanscapes, portraits and self portraits that question the concrete identity of the individuals in their material, social and spiritual environmental contexts.