All are invited to celebrate the opening of Pamela Reilly’s exhibit in the Upper Gallery, “A Sense of Place: Recent Paintings of Hoboken.”

Pamela’s acrylic paintings depict recognizable people and places, usually in an urban setting. She paints with strong color and a clear rhythm. She walks around Hoboken without a predetermined route, taking photographs to document what she sees, paying particular attention to the time of day and the season. When an image takes hold – a striking sky, perhaps – she uses those photos and my understanding of air, space, and color to start a painting.

Edgar Degas wrote, “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.” Each brushstroke reveals her process, but the essential transformation at the heart of her painting practice happens beyond conscious thought. She is interested in the moment when intention gives way to discovery and a familiar subject becomes something new.

The body of work in ‘A Sense of Place: Recent Paintings of Hoboken’ marks a shift from her earlier exhibitions. Rhythm has become essential to unifying her paintings and detail takes a backseat to the overall feeling. She wants a person standing in front of the canvas to experience a story unfolding over time.

Hoboken-based artist Pamela Reilly draws on photography, memory, and personal experience to create vivid paintings of people and landscapes. After a period devoted to caring for her family, Reilly returns to exhibition with a solo presentation at the Hoboken Historical Museum: ‘A Sense of Place: Recent Paintings of Hoboken.’

Reilly studied art and art history at Smith College and the College of Fine Arts at Boston University. She continued her education at the Art Students League and the School of Visual Arts in New York. She also studied at the New York Feminist Art Institute, where artist Faith Ringgold introduced her to the tradition of story quilts with their focus on community. Reilly apprenticed with sculptor Sidney Simon and worked with him at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, where guest lecturers included David Hockney and Louise Nevelson. More recently, she has studied painting privately with artist Henry Finkelstein.

Reilly has had four solo exhibitions of figurative work at Ceres Gallery in New York. The Edith Barrett Art Gallery at Utica College presented a ten-year overview of her work, Inner Circles, and she was also a guest lecturer at the college. Her earlier oil pastels, drawings, quilts, and photo transfers have been included in numerous group exhibitions, including the prestigious Fiber National.

Reilly’s work continues to explore the relationship between observation, memory, and lived experience. She is currently developing a series of paintings and drawings inspired by the annual St. Ann’s procession, extending her longstanding interest in people, place, and memory inspired by living in Hoboken