John O'Reilly

John O’Reilly is perhaps best remembered for carefully constructed photographs that pay homage to artists he admired, such as Velázquez and Eakins. Created through an iterative process of shooting and reshooting with a Polaroid 100 camera and in conjunction with photomontage, both of these works present O’Reilly’s nude body, metaphorically laying bare his identity and coming to terms with his sexuality. He explained:

I lived a closeted life. I grew up in New Jersey and was never in the gay world. As a kid you know all about sexuality, and you know nothing. I hid from it. . . . But pictures became a key to coming to terms with my sexuality, to trying to find out what and who I am. They began as a psychotherapeutic examination. There are lots of disturbances in my work.

–Conor Moynihan, assistant curator of prints, drawings, and photographs