O’Reilly engages Performative Art through conceptual photography and the body as a material. Her narrative exploration utilises the literary and poetic influences of Sylvia Plath, James Joyce, and T.S Elliot. O’Reilly’s diverse artistic inspiration includes the sculptural paintings of Sam Gilliam, Katharina Grosse, Sheila Hicks, and El Anatsui. Further influences can be found in the photographic of Francesca Woodman, and the compositions of Alice Maher, Helen Frankenthaler, and Miquel Barceló.
Originally from Cavan, O’Reilly, currently based in rural Sligo, returned to study after years travelling. Her interdisciplinary practice employs process and materiality using colour, texture, and form in a variety of mediums. Emerging from personal experience, scientific imagery, and a historical domestic palette, her practice evolved through experimentation. Biomorphic textile paintings and pigmented filaments connect as a network of the sublime. Metaphor, abstraction, and fragmentation combine as an expression of the surreal liminal space between internal and external worlds.
