S. Ryan O'Connor, known as jiwa, is an artist working with code, based in Berlin, whose algorithm-driven works often bridge into physical objects and explore process, progress and the self.He holds a B.S. in Information Systems from George Mason Universityand was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence with Art Blocks and OpenSea in 2025.
His 2023 generative collection Axo, released through Art Blocks Presents,,renders the human mental condition as a network of neurons whose pixels fire and search for synaptic connections, cycling through states of stress, awareness, re-centering and reprogramming.Built with a custom pixel-easing algorithm in pure JavaScript,each work responds to keyboard input, letting a viewer toggle its state of mind, curate and replay its history, or freeze it at an earlier stage.Individual works in the collection can also affect one another, so that one piece's state of awareness or stress ripples through the wider network.
In his 2026 exhibition “Counterspace” at Galerie Met in Berlin, printed works capture ephemeral, discarded states from the development of an algorithm alongside live-code digital works that run its current version in the browser, setting fixed physical objects against a process that keeps changing. The show drew on ideas associated with the artist Joseph Beuys around awareness and attentiveness opening access to a space beyond ordinary physics.He has also collaborated with the artist Bernar Venet on works shown in New York, London, Paris and China and released with Sotheby's,and has exhibited at Art Blocks Gallery in Marfa, Bright Moments in Berlin, and NEORT in Tokyo, among other venues.
