About
a very compound crux.
Flann O’Brien
His work explores geometrical composition and processes of transformation. Through architecture he attempts to create spaces that are both spiritually uplifting and cheap, playing with themes of proportion, colour and the balance of opposites. Likewise his love for creating jewellery comes from an enjoyment of both designing and making: it is a process of rearranging materials, which have been in the earth for millions of years and will be here long after us. He frequently uses offcuts and discarded materials as starting-points and works regularly with recycled silver, copper and gold, metals that continually delight and amaze him.
He grew up in Wales and moved to Glasgow in 2005, where he gained undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in architecture at the Glasgow School of Art. For his thesis he investigated overlapping themes and spatial compositions in painting and architecture, and was subsequently awarded a travelling scholarship to research the work of Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray and Charlotte Perriand.
He has watched the Art School burn twice. Heartbroken and angered by the second fire and the subsequent inaction, he dreams of a city that has the skill and vision to produce (and look after) world-class works of design and craftsmanship.
In 2010 he became artist assistant to Alasdair Gray and worked closely with him until his death in 2019, producing many paintings and book illustrations as well as public murals. Since 2013 he has frequently worked with Turner Prize-winning artist Richard Wright and has travelled internationally with him to create site-specific installations, often using gold and silver leaf.
He gained a Higher National Diploma in jewellery design at the City of Glasgow College, and has since spent time working in Kyoto, Oaxaca and Vienna. He has given talks on Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Josef Hoffmann, the influence of Japanese aesthetics, as well as Classical and Modernist architecture.
In 2025 he became a QEST scholar and completed the Building Arts Programme based at Dumfries House in Ayrshire. He spent the year travelling across Britain working with master metalsmiths and craftspeople, and reading EP Thompson’s seminal book The Making of the English Working Class, being both inspired and reassured by the roles of the artisan in society.