John O'Reilly: pastpresent

For more than twenty years, Boston artist John O’Reilly has constructed intimate and beautiful black and white photographic collages. Using found pictures from sources such as gay porn, his family album and art history books, in combination with photos shot in his studio or in Photo Mat booths, he creates fantastic images with complex and playful references to personal, social, political and art history.

These images are put together with the same sort of psychological glue as our dreams. History and fantasy intertwine and become indistinguishable.

The past, present and future co-exist. Unlikely juxtapositions and combinations appear, if not natural, to make a kind of perverse sense.

This survey exhibition is organized around some of the themes O’Reilly has explored during his career: the body, desire, and forging a personal identity within a larger social context.