Timekeeper 127 | Acrylic paint on plexiglass | 150 x 100cm.
NORMAN O’FLYNN
NORMAN O’FLYNN (b. 1971) lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
He is a painter and sculptor and has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, residencies and workshops across the globe.
His love for an interdisciplinary approach and cross-cultural collaboration add extra pep to his distinct visual language, a vocabulary of immediately and globally recognisable imagery.
Besides private local and overseas collections, his work can also be found in corporate collections. These include Deutsche Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Nando’s Contemporary Art (UK/Australia/South Africa), Hollard Insurance, Luciano Benetton, MTN, the University of Cape Town and more.
O’Flynn also explored blockchain technology at an early stage of its development and in April 2021 successfully sold his first NFT. Painting and sculpture remain a priority and areas that he excels in.
“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, arts writer and author
EDUCATION
1988-1992 BA Fine Arts, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa
SPECIAL HONOURS & AWARDS
2017,-18,-19 Pietra Santa Sculpture Residency, Italy
2016 IICD Residency, Nigeria
2009 Triangle Artists’ Workshop, Beirut
2007 ABSA L’Atelier finalist
2006 Pro Helvetia Swiss Residency Fellowship
2005 ABSA L’Atelier finalist
2004 Brett Kebble Art Awards finalist
2004 ABSA L’Atelier finalist
ART FAIRS
2025, -24, -23, -22, -20, -19, -18, -17, -16 Investec Cape Town International Art Fair
2025, -24, -23 RMB Latitudes Art Fair
2019 Sydney Contemporary, Sydney
2023, -22, -21, -19, -18, -17 Turbine Art Fair, represented by WORLDART
2018 Stroke International Art Fair, Munich
2018, -12, -11 FNB Johannesburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2017 SCOPE Miami, Miami
2016, -17 Moniker Art Fair, London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 Is this the real life? WORLDART, Cape Town
2025 HABITAT, Everard Read, Franschoek
2023 After the stampede, WORLDART, Cape Town
2022 Rules for rebels, WORLDART, Cape Town
2021 Always and Always, WORLDART, Cape Town
2020 LOVESICK, WORLDART, Cape Town
2019 Cool and Composed. WORLDART, Cape Town
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, Gabarone, Botswana