Geraldine O’Reilly was born in Dublin, where she attended the National College of Art and Design from 1977 to 1982, obtaining a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art and Art History. The inspiration for Geraldine O’ Reilly’s (Hynes) exhibition “Under the Cover of Trees” came about through the simple act of going for walks with friends in woodlands, near and far from her Dublin home.
Geraldine’s artistic career began in NCAD , where her work was influenced by Systemic, Op and Kinetic art, best exemplified by the work of Sol le Witt and Bridget Riley. Since then, rearing a family had consumed most of her day, with little time to further progress her artistic career. Now that her adult children are making their own way in life, she has returned in a circuitous route, to those art influences of earlier times.
The hard edge, masculine and cerebal imprint of Systemic and Kenitic art (grid) has given way to the more feminine and natural intricacies of interlaced horizontal and vertical lines of woodland trees.
The exhibition “Under the Cover of Trees” in natural form, mirror the mathematical grids of Systemic art. Vertical tree trunks, both narrow and broad, etched with dappled bark or moss, floating branches and angular leaves cut through, bisecting and disecting the aerial space above and under foot pathways lead to hidded seclusion or out onto a light filled horizon. Though gridlike on one level, the woodland experience offers occasions of a parrallel sylvan world of mystery and elemental prescience.
This exhibition shows the beginning of a journey for Geraldine O’ Reilly in artistic terms and on engagement with the subject of woodlands and surrounds which undoubtedly offers a multifaceted avenue of exploration into the future.