To watch the recorded Art Talk, click here.

Aramis O’Reilly was born in Havana, Cuba, was raised in New Jersey and attended Florida International University, where he received both his BFA (1989) and MFA (2001) in painting. His work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and public spaces. He is also a senior professor at the New World School of the Arts where he has been teaching painting and drawing since 1996.

About his work O’Reilly explains:

“My work represents my desire to imagine a utopian world. As an immigrant from early childhood, I experienced two worlds that existed simultaneously. The old world that was left behind which existed in the imagination of my parents and the new world that did not quite fit because of the separation of language, culture, and appearance. With that came an inevitable detachment from both. In hindsight, this separation allowed me to experience a critical distance from both realities and it provided a mental space for me to re- imagine both worlds.

Aesthetically, overtime I have gravitated towards geometrizing the landscape of the world of things. These geometric/organic parts, like detritus generally tend to lack the basic signifiers that identify where they came from or what they will become. Other parts are direct appropriations from existing identifiable forms. Essentially, I imagine them moving in ways opposite to the universal tendency towards disorder (entropy) and instead are converting less order into more order (negentropy). This allows me the opportunity to re-organize the world of things into new special events.

Negentropy is a rare and temporary condition in the world, and it is this special movement from which life emerges. I am most interested in this phenomenon, both as a way of representing the utopian moment and as a response against a dystopian future. This is especially relevant to me now in the face of global social and natural challenges that forecast a growing disorder. But, just as in my own experiences two future world.”

To learn more about Aramis O’Reilly, click here.