Alison P. O’Reilly, RCA 2019

Biography

Alison P. O’Reilly (b. 1982, Ottawa, ON, Canada) is a visual artist and painter based in East London. Her work has been featured in various group exhibitions across the UK, including the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) 171st Annual Open Exhibition and the 2024 Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI) Annual Open.

Alison’s paintings are in both private and corporate collections within the UK and Canada, including a commercial commission for a client at The Shard, London Bridge. She holds an MA and MSc from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London, where she researched universal aesthetics and was a joint recipient of the Grantham Institute and the RCA Grantham Art Prize in 2018.

She has been selected for the 2025/26 Turps Off Site Programme. She is a member of the Bow Arts community, where she has her studio, and serves on the Bow Skills Steering Group. She is also part of the Recoverist Union with the UK charity Portraits of Recovery and runs art workshops for Waythrough, a London-based charity supporting people in recovery.

In addition to her studio practice, she undertakes commercial commissions.

For regular updates, follow her on Instagram: @alisonporeilly

Artist Statement

At the heart of my practice is a fascination with how colour and composition can create powerful visual impact. I combine a disciplined approach grounded in traditional methods with an intuitive, spontaneous energy, allowing tension between control and play to emerge in the layered surfaces.

I work in oil, acrylic, and enamel, often on collaged or distressed surfaces. Each painting begins with a clear compositional plan and a personal narrative, and through layering and revision develops a weathered, architectural quality.

My background in interior design and architectural drafting continues to inform my work. In my abstract paintings, I draw on the textures of old buildings, floor plans, and colour studies, with traces of drafting tools like technical pencils and lettering guides creating structure amid the layers. My still life paintings apply these same methods while incorporating found objects sourced online and from charity shops- often slightly kitsch, familiar things from the recent past, engaging with the visual language of domestic interiors rooted in my upbringing.

Whether abstract or figurative, my work is consistently shaped by an interest in space, structure, and colour, creating an ongoing dialogue across the work.