Jerry O’ Sullivan’s experience as a mason has informed his methodology as an artist. Working with the tools of his former trade, his work reflects the materiality of the urban world. His canvases are abstract, some of which resemble weathered walls and peeling layers of paint scored by time. He uses archaeology as a metaphor for his practice, the slow scraping away of the surface to reveal the past. Excavations and fragments are common themes in his work.
O’Sullivan is inspired by the transient beauty of the natural world where everything is constantly changing; these random traces and flaws inspire his work. Natural materials such as sand, lime, brick- dust and wax are primary components within his process. His recent body of work, Fragments unlike the construction of a building involves at the same time, a sort of demolition.
What is unfamiliar and most interesting in his opinion, are the unusual results one can achieve when various materials are deployed in an experimental way.