John A. O’Connor received his A.B. with Honors in Art in 1961 and his M.A.A. in 1963 in painting and drawing from the University of California-Davis. He taught art at the University of California-Davis from 1961-63, the University of California-Santa Barbara from 1963-64, Blake College, Valle de Bravo, Mexico from 1964-65, and Ohio University, Athens from 1965-69. From 1969, he taught art at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He was named Professor of Art in 1985, a position he held until his retirement in 2005.
He has had thirty-six solo exhibitions of his paintings and his art has also been exhibited in more than two hundred group shows. His work is in numerous public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad including the State of California Collection, the Ringling Museum of Art, the DeLand Museum of Art, the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Bechtel Corporation, Alabama Power and Light, Cole National Corporation and IBM Corporation. For a more comprehensive look at O’Connor’s career, please visit his website at johnaoconnor.com.