Emily O'Reilly
Exhibiting Artist
emilyoreilly.com
Emily O’Reilly is a multi-disciplined artist living in Binghamton, NY. She began her undergraduate studies in 2008 but took a twelve year hiatus from completing her undergraduate degree. She returned to Binghamton University in August 2024 to finish her BFA in painting, completed in May 2025. During the break from her undergrad, Emily started a wedding photography company and traveled the globe documenting other people’s life events and the areas surrounding them. She is a self taught digital photographer, honing in her skill set for those twelve years she wasn’t studying for her undergrad.
A crisis of life brought Emily back to painting. This work focused on her family, life cycles and mental landscapes. Since returning to finish her undergrad, Emily discovered a love for printmaking, opeing the door for another world of possibilities.
Since Emily’s comeback to visual arts, she’s been active in the local art community, getting involved with a local gallery- Cooperative Gallery 213 where she served as their PR Chair and then gallery president. Her work has been seen in local galleries and restaurants, in a couple solo exhibitions, and she’s called upon for different mural projects.
Currently, Emily is in pursuit of her master's degree through the University of Nevada, Reno in their Interdisciplinary Arts program. Upon completion is 2008 she will be pursuing a career teaching in a university.
2025
Noun
[noun] grammar
: people, places, things
My current work is centered around the concept of the noun—the people, places, and things that anchor our experiences and shape our understanding of the world. Through painting and printmaking, I explore how everyday subjects carry emotional, cultural, and symbolic weight.
Each figure, landscape, or object I depict invites reflection on presence and absence, memory and identity. Whether capturing a quiet door or a peaceful slumber, I aim to give visual form to the often overlooked moments that define our everyday life.
By working across different media, I engage with both immediacy and permanence—seeking a balance between spontaneity and structure, narrative and abstraction. My practice is a study of the tangible world and its quiet poetry, framed through the lens of the simplest yet most meaningful elements of language: nouns.
A recurring subject in my work is motherhood—not only as a personal experience but as a lens through which to view care, labor, intimacy, and transformation. Becoming a mother has changed my life, and the lens I use to see the world.
