1989 Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of Fine Arts, New York, NY

Chris Reilly's new work addresses imagery of natural transformation and evolution. Reilly draws inspiration from iconic eastern and western imagery including the goddess and nature. His work emerges from an interest in the juxtaposition of inherent duality and the fusion of opposites. Reilly incorporates natural life forms, like the frog and dragonfly, which symbolize the eternal cycle of evolution, and the jellyfish, which alludes to pleasure and pain. His paintings often include foliage, seeds, and blossoms to indicate the eternal nature of natural cycles and the nascent stages of growth. Reilly's subtle, nuanced forms and delicately sublime palette create a meditative, magical, fantastical space. Though based primarily on natural forms and spiritual embodiments, Reilly creates a dream-space, a realm characterized by imagination and mystery.

Reilly works in encaustic and creates his paintings through a process of creation, destruction, and preservation. Reilly begins with a white gypsum ground on canvas or panel and uses pastels and watercolor as an under-painting, which is then sealed with molten wax. Layers of encaustic are then applied to the foundation; a heat gun is used to fuse the layers of wax together. Sometimes opaque watercolor is added and then selectively removed in certain places in order to reveal the original layer. The resulting smooth, sensual encaustic surface enhances the fluid and transformative effects of his paintings.

Christopher Reilly was born in New York in 1967 and currently lives with his wife Michelle Haglund and their two children in California. 

Selected Solo Exhibitions

-2006

Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York, NY

-2005

Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho

Meyer Gallery, Park City, Utah

Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

-2004

Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

"Create. Destroy. Preserve." Scott White Contemporary. Art, San Diego, CA

"Idyll" Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID

-2003

Meyer Gallery, Park City, UT

Scott White Contemporary Art, Telluride, CO

-2002

Davis-Keil Gallery, Naples, Fl

Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID

Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle, WA

"Form of Spirit" Allen Sheppard Gallery, New York, NY

-2001

"Nimbus", Eyre/ Moore Gallery, Seattle, WA

" Imago", Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA

" Christopher Reilly & Michele Haglund", Gail Severn, Ketchum, ID

-2000

"Halo", Avenue Arts, Salt Lake City, UT

-1999

Eyre/ Moore Gallery, Seattle, WA

Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID

-1998

"Immanent and Translucent", R. B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA

Meyer Gallery, Park City, UT

-1997

"Growth and Stillness", R. B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA

" Fossil", Allen Sheppard Gallery, Piermont, NY

-1995

"Creation, Growth, and Dissolution", The Writing Center, San Diego, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions

-2006

"Spring Highlights", Winston Wächter Fine Art, Seattle, WA

-2001

Allan Sheppard Gallery, New York, NY

Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID

-2000

"Summer Group Exhibition", SOMA Gallery, La Jolla, CA

-1998

"Summer Group Exhibition", Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

" A Common Thread", Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID

" Animism: Icon, Metaphor, Myth", Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID

-1997

Gail Severn Gallery, Ketchum, ID

" Winter Group Exhibition", R. B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA

-1996

Allen Sheppard Gallery, Piermont, NY

" Summer Group Exhibition", R. B. Stevenson Gallery, La Jolla, CA

" 5th Annual Juried Exhibition", Athenaeum, La Jolla, CA

Meyer Gallery, Park City, UT

Susan Street Gallery, Solana Beach, CA

-1995

The Art Institute, San Diego, CA

Awards -Third Place, The La Jolla Athenaeum 5th Annual Juried Exhibition, 1996

-Second Place, Del Mar Fair Painting Exhibit, 1991

-Francis Criss Memorial Purchase Award, 1989

Publications -Pincus, Robert "Elegant Visions" San Diego Union Tribune, March 22, 2004 (with reproductions)

-Viebrock, Susan "Reilly's magical, mystical images at Scott White" Telluride Daily Planet, March 7, 2003 (with reproductions)

-Pincus, Robert, "The Way of the Spirit" San Diego Union-Tribune, January 20,2000 (with reproductions)

-Busler, Leslie, "Artists to Watch", Southwest Art, Sept. 1998 (with reproduction)

-Baldridge, Charlene, "In Love with the Light", La Jolla Village News, Apr. 1997 (with reproduction)

-Pincus, Robert, "Doing Justice to the Juried", San Diego Union Tribune, May 16, 1995