The exhibition CHRIS REILLY | LOVE | LOST | RUINS was on view at AIH Studios | Art Is Hell in downtown Welland through the months of May to mid July 2024.
The words of curator Bart Gazzola:
“My instrument is not black but the light reflected from the black.” (Pierre Soulages)
While installing Chris Reilly’s LOVE | LOST | RUINS (a visual meditation on the recent loss of his mother) I was reminded that it was also the anniversary of my own father’s passing.
As Reilly has often spoken of his work as a kind of emotional purge – a visual repository for anxiety, stress and other emotions – this has an appropriate synchronicity. We hope this connection, this resonance, will be experienced by all those who visit this exhibition.
The artist’s words :
‘All my paintings are conceptual self portraits, of a particular moment in time, my history and experiences.
My artworks are defined by my daily life and the individuals around me and my interactions with them. In many ways, my pieces are shaped by circumstances and emotions (depression, isolation, despair) and the artwork itself is more process oriented: the piece is a visual result of my feelings expressed through the act of creating the work.
Materials and techniques I use are often non-traditional because a “formal” framework of “making” artwork is secondary. I experiment with different mediums, as whatever best helps me in creating balance in my life by finding balance on the canvas is what I employ. My lack of a “formal” art “education” is a positive thing, here, as I have fewer preconceived notions of art making.
There’s an element of self directed art therapy in my practice: this correlates to my work in health care, and in this way my paintings are how I reflect on the day and learn about myself. They’re my separation between past and future, and are a visual representation of all of my accomplishments and failures. I make the images for myself as a way to cope, but also as a visual diary, that’s immediate to my world and acts as visual “chapters” of a wider, biographical record.
My studio practice is very intense and the prolific nature of my production is another way in which I maintain an equilibrium in my life. The abstracted, often strongly monochromatic palette and the painterly, expressive marks are like footprints, indicating where I’ve ‘been’ as well as personal information that can be ‘decoded’ or appreciated for its aesthetic sensibility. Some works can be very minimal, whereas others have layers of marks, and many of these works interact with each other, formally as well as symbolically.’
See more of Reilly’s artwork at his IG here.