Askew
New Zealand
Reared in the Aotearoa New Zealand graffiti scene, Elliot O’Donnell or Askew One (as he is widely known), has forged a career that spans decades, continents and creative approaches; from graffiti to design, gallery exhibitions to mural works, illustration to video production. A self-taught multi-disciplinary artist, O’Donnell’s artistic trajectory emerged amidst the multi-cultural melting pot of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, the capital of the South Pacific and New Zealand’s largest urban centre; the surrounding environment and diverse cultural influences providing an enduring impact. From these local roots, O’Donnell’s international reputation has grown through collaborations, commissions and exhibitions. Currently residing in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter, he has cemented a legacy as one of Aotearoa’s most successful post-Millennial creative exports.
Seeing graffiti as a kind of alchemy where art is created from basic means, O’Donnell immersed himself in the style writing culture in his early teens, beginning a life-long entanglement that remains his most consistent influence. From organising Auckland’s first graffiti festival to establishing a number of exhibition spaces, publishing the graffiti magazine Disrupt and authoring InForm : New Zealand Graffiti Artists Discuss Their Work (Reed Books, Auckland, 2007), the first significant book on Aotearoa graffiti culture, O’Donnell has been at the forefront of New Zealand graffiti for three decades, as an artist, organiser and public advocate.. O’Donnell’s artistic evolution has, in many ways, mirrored the maturation of New Zealand urban art, embracing mural and studio work as extensions of his graffiti roots and seeking new pathways and themes.
Absorbing influences, exploring ideas and pushing boundaries, O’Donnell’s art has constantly evolved, revisiting and refining ideas through new filters and re-evaluating process and purpose with an insatiable curiosity. His investigation of letterforms has served as both an ongoing discussion around graffiti’s long-held traditions, while also revealing new directions beyond those foundational parameters, manifesting as studies for paintings, murals, animations, and sculptures. O’Donnell’s expansive post-graffiti practice has explored portraiture, text, abstraction, and investigations of the urban environment, constantly balancing aesthetic and conceptual concerns. The use of technology has been a central feature of O’Donnell’s process, unearthing new terrain and allowing for a conversation between the potential found in the digital and the honesty of the analogue. Shifting between screen, street and studio, compositions are transformed and unlocked as dynamic animations with shifting perspectives that reimagine the artist’s accumulated knowledge and reframe his questions of the world.