In the second week of February 2025, Enrico Geremia, intern at Olivier Cornet Gallery, wrote about Bart O'Reilly's 'Shadows on Soil (Fall Irregardless)'.

The artwork is on view and available for sale at the gallery. The artwork is priced at 650 euro. 

Shadows on Soil (Fall Irregardless) was first presented in Compendium, a winter group show inaugurated on Sunday, December 17, 2023, at the Olivier Cornet Gallery. This exhibition featured works from various shows held at the gallery throughout that year. 

This painting is by Bart O’Reilly, an Irish artist based in Maryland, USA, where he teaches at The John Carroll School in Bel Air. In 2022, he published My Father’s Work Shed, a collection of poetry that shares intimate perspectives on memory, place, home, family, childhood, and fatherhood, and includes a photograph of Shadows on Soil (Fall Irregardless) alongside the poem 'Unburdened'.

This small acrylic painting on canvas features soft, abstract stains applied directly onto the raw surface using a staining technique. These marks appear to be absorbed by the canvas, mimicking a natural process, almost as if they were suspended in time and affected by its passage. The largely horizontal composition is interrupted by an untouched white shape near the bottom, creating a quiet and deliberate contrast. The organic softness of the colors evokes natural pigmentation, reinforcing an impression of something ancient and unplaceable in time, more a discovered artifact than a consciously created image.

A sense of expansion and suspension permeates the work, a feeling deeply rooted in O’Reilly’s mountain upbringing that informs his unique use of space and instills the piece with a weightless quality, further enhanced by the large wooden frame with its wide white border. The abstraction invites diverse interpretations and resonates with personal experiences, each perspective as unique and valid as the next, a concept echoed in the accompanying poem 'Unburdened'. This poem explores themes of duality, suspension, and multiple viewpoints:

 “That pipe's going nowhere

A camera or a friend.”

Excerpt from 'Unburdened', published as part of Full Paintings and Poems, My Father's Work Shed, Bart O'Reilly

'Unburdened' is structured in two sections. The first explores themes of abandonment, recovery, and care, portraying time as a force that both consumes and enriches, ultimately deepening our understanding and appreciation. The second section highlights the inherent impossibility of fully grasping our surroundings, suggesting that while another medium might offer multiple perspectives, it can never fully replicate the nuances of human perception, each interpretation remaining uniquely its own.

Enrico Geremia, February 2025