Jack Reilly is a contemporary American artist known as a pioneer of shaped canvas painting and an original member of the Abstract Illusionism movement of the late 1970s.
Statement:
We generally tend to perceive time in a linear manner. However, many common devices used to measure time are formatted in circular configurations. These range from ancient sun dials to analog clocks and modern timepieces. In what we perceive as our physical universe, stars, spherical planets, repetitive rotation, and gravitational orbits appear to be the basic order of things, as we all hurl through the infinity of space. From Stonehenge to medieval calendars to analog wristwatches, the preoccupation with time, space, and mysteries of the universe have puzzled humans, from primitive stargazers to the most educated of scientists of our time.
My interest lies in the investigation, expressed through abstract painting, of ideas regarding time and space, both tangible and intangible. In my current work, I choose to begin on a circular-shaped structure which creates a visual container that refers to the endless nature of the circle as a metaphor for the repetition of time and the structure of space. The outlying edges of these circular paintings consist of hundreds, if not thousands of rapidly applied, highly chromatic brushstrokes, tightly compressed within multiple hard-edge boundaries (orbits). The visual effect of my signature brushwork has been compared to Gothic stained glass and Byzantine mosaics. Within the center of these circular objects lie wide-open spaces, alluring portals of soft fields of color appearing to float somewhere behind the polychromed circular rings of the canvas perimeters. Within these color fields, one can get lost in ambient sensations and visual ambiguity of light, color, and space.
Contemplating the references and underlying message of these circular paintings, or simply meditating upon the object itself, is of course the prerogative of the viewer, whether approaching them directly as colors and textures on a circular object, or metaphors of the physical and metaphysical state in which we exist.
A visual journey through a selection recent circular paintings from Jack Reilly's "Circles of Time" series, featuring a range of new paintings, surface details, and installation views. All Images and music © Jack Reilly, 2024
Documentation of artist Jack Reilly creating two, large-scale public art commissions for the county of Sand Diego Health Services Complex, and American Airlines at Los Angeles International Airport. © Jack Reilly, 1993
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