Biography
Geraldine O'Reilly is an Irish painter, draftsperson, and printmaker working primarily in etching, lithograph, and mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printing). Born in 1956 in Rathwire, Killucan, County Westmeath, she is a member of Graphic Studio Dublin (GSD) and a member of Aosdána, Ireland's elite affiliation of artists, to which she was elected in 2004.
O'Reilly studied Fine Art Painting at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin, graduating in 1982 (some sources state 1983 for the honours degree completion). In 1989 she received a Fulbright Scholarship which she used to research Irish emigration to America for her exhibition 'JOURNAL,' a watershed body of work that established her recurring engagement with women's history, emigration, and landscapes that reveal the history of human interaction. She has chaired Graphic Studio Dublin (2008) and served on its board.
Her mokuhanga 'Late Evening on the Royal Canal' was selected for the Kanreki exhibition mounted by Graphic Studio Dublin to mark its 60th anniversary, the cohort organised around a brief that all participating artists incorporate the colour red. The Kanreki exhibition was shown at The Model, Sligo (2020) and Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin (April 2021), and travelled to the 9th International Mokuhanga Conference satellite event at Nara Prefectural Cultural Hall (30 November to 4 December 2021). Within the Kanreki cohort she sits among the senior generation of GSD members who have added mokuhanga to existing intaglio practices.
O'Reilly's broader catalogue mixes mediums: etchings (Tullynally Magnolia series, 'The Blackbird of Glanmore,' 'Light on the Wall,' 'Golden Sunrise over Oxley's field,' 'My Hearts Delight' which combines etching with woodblock), lithographs, mokuhanga, and a 3D-print series ('In the Palm of the Hand'). Subjects range from Irish landscape and natural history to the women's-history and emigration themes that have run through her work since 'JOURNAL.' Her residencies include the Banff Centre for the Creative Arts (Canada), the MacDowell Colony (USA), the Irish Cultural Centre, Paris (July 2013), Ballinglen Arts Foundation, County Mayo (August 2014), and Áras Éanna, Inis Oírr, Aran Islands (May 2015).
Her work is held by the National Gallery of Ireland, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Chester Beatty Library, and additional collections in Australia and the United States. Notable exhibitions include 'Coming Home,' 'Of Space and Place,' 'Fragments, Metaphors and Smithereens,' 'Unlegendary Heroes,' 'Lapis Lazuli,' 'St. Bridget's Well,' and 'Bloodroots.' She was shortlisted for the Golden Fleece Award in 2007.
For Hanga's purposes, O'Reilly qualifies as a senior Irish printmaker with verified Aosdána membership, an established cross-medium printmaking practice (etching, lithograph, mokuhanga), and Kanreki-cohort selection within Graphic Studio Dublin's 60th-anniversary mokuhanga exhibition.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1956
- Nationality
- 🇮🇪Ireland
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Subjects
- Landscapes
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Geraldine O'Reilly is an Irish painter, draftsperson, and printmaker working primarily in etching, lithograph, and mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printing). Born in 1956 in Rathwire, Killucan, County Westmeath, she is a member of Graphic Studio Dublin (GSD) and a member of Aosdána, Ireland's elite affiliation of artists, to which she was elected in 2004.
Geraldine O'Reilly was active born in 1956. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Geraldine O'Reilly's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Geraldine O'Reilly's prints frequently feature landscapes.