Walkways of the M50: John O’Reilly on making art from infrastructure
John O’Reilly: 'I love walking. Urban or rural, wherever I am, I like to walk around.' Picture: Rosie Barrett
John O’Reilly grew up in the North Strand in Dublin and has always been fascinated by the city’s built environment. A former graffiti artist, he transitioned to painting in oils on canvas in his twenties. His work can now be seen in Walkways of the M50, his first solo exhibition at the Ashford Gallery at the Royal Hibernian Academy, which takes the pedestrian infrastructure of one of the capital’s busiest motorways as its subject.
“I grew up on Charleville Avenue, which is pretty much beside Croke Park,” he says. “It's inner city, and a pretty old area, and there's a lot of different kinds of architecture around.
