Jiwa

Biography

Jiwa, born S. Ryan O'Connor in 1987 in Virginia Beach, United States, is a generative artist and coder now based in Berlin, Germany. Working primarily with algorithms that bridge digital process and physical form, he explores themes of process, progress, and the self, treating code as a medium for building generative narratives about inner worlds. He holds a B.S. in Information Systems from George Mason University and brings roughly fifteen years of senior-level full-stack, smart-contract, and web3 architecture experience into his artistic practice. Jiwa served as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence with Art Blocks and OpenSea in 2025, a residency that produced "DDUST," a digital art project blending code, memory, and desert rhythms drawn from his time in Marfa, Texas. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues including Art Blocks Gallery in Marfa, OBEY Art Space, Bright Moments Berlin, NEORT Tokyo, Times Square NYC, and House of Wisdom in the UAE, and his best-known series include "Axo" on Art Blocks and "EVENT" on Sotheby's digital platform. He has spoken about his practice at Perrotin Gallery in Paris, Digital Art Mile in Basel, and Sotheby's headquarters in New York and Marfa. Jiwa has also collaborated with established contemporary artist Bernar Venet on works exhibited internationally in New York, London, Paris, and China, and released through Sotheby's. Across his output, Jiwa continues to investigate how chance, consensus, and networked systems shape both digital art and everyday online experience.