S. Ryan O'Connor, also known as jiwa, is an American artist and engineer whose practice treats algorithms as instruments for examining process, progress and the self. Born in Virginia Beach and now based in Berlin, he studied Information Systems at George Mason University before developing a career in creative technology, full-stack architecture.
His entry into generative art followed years of programming alongside drawing, music and spray-paint practices. Jiwa has described the expansion of on-chain generative art in 2021 as the moment when coding became legible to him as a fine-art medium. The resulting practice is deliberately human-facing. Rather than presenting software as an autonomous spectacle, he asks how code can preserve imperfection, narrate inner life and sustain meaningful encounters.
He has been exhibited internationally, most recently at Galerie Met, OBEY Art Space, NOTAGALLERY, and Bright Moments gallery in Berlin, Art Blocks Gallery in Marfa, NEORT’s BYOD Tokyo, Times Square NYC, and beyond. He was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence with Art Blocks & OpenSea (2025). He has spoken most recently at Perrotin Gallery, Paris, Digital Art Mile, Basel, Switzerland, Sothebys HQ, NYC, & Marfa, Texas. He has collaborated with contemporary artist Bernar Venet on works shown internationally in NYC, London, Paris, China, & released with Sothebys.