14 Oct 2020

John O'Reilly & James Tellin: Recent Work (2018-2020)

Howard Yezerski Gallery

Reviewed by Franklin Einspruch

Those unfamiliar with the Massachusetts institution that is John O'Reilly and James Tellin owe themselves a trip to Howard Yezerski to edify themselves. The couple met at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1954, settled in Worcester in the late '60s, and have produced art steadily since then. O'Reilly works in collage and Tellin in assemblage, in distinct styles but compatible sensibilities.

O'Reilly's collages pull from a pencil-drawing aesthetic that often, but not always, manifests in actual drawing. Case in point is Diver (2020), in which traced figures in various stages of flight from the high board combine with reproductions of Michelangelo chalk studies, mixing vertiginously via subtle washes of paint. Tellin's Face and Figure (2018-19) is an Ernstian conversation between abstracted personae, taking place in a box like a comics panel but viewable from opposite sides. Any artist would be grateful to come into his nineties with such maturity and wit. What a blessing to do so alongside another artist advancing likewise.