Living away from home and learning to exist within the vastness of London, he began documenting scenes of people on the Underground, fragmenting and reconnecting moments of differing lives in an attempt to reconcile familiarity and distance, absence and longing. Almost as if searching for a form of emotional security through his work, O’Connor’s

‘Closer I Get To You’ series captures anonymous subjects as a way of confronting his own loneliness within the city, transforming these fleeting encounters into small acts of protest, comfort and solace.

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 Influenced by artists such as Claire Tabouret and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and guided by a deep sense of purpose, O’Connor’s practice looks closely at the working class and other marginalised groups, attempting to infiltrate and disrupt the boxes imposed upon him and others both literally and figuratively, through a style that is entirely his own.

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With concise, deliberate brushstrokes, sudden bursts of vibrant colour, and a gentle blurring of the line between portraiture and abstraction, O’Connor’s work pulls beauty from the mundane: the tubes we board, the pavements we cross, the people we see yet never truly encounter.

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Dylan O’Connor lives and works between London and his hometown of Wexford.