PAINTINGS
These recent mixed media paintings by Marianna Magurudumian-O’Reilly emerge from her ongoing exploration of intuitive mark-making, surrealist collage, and cross-disciplinary expression. Drawn to the subconscious, she constructs richly textured works in which fragments - whether collaged paint 'skins', hybrid figures, or architectural motifs - interweave with vibrant, gestural paint. Each piece unfolds as a visual story, inviting viewers into liminal spaces where psychological depth meets playful surrealism.
Martha's Dance Acrylic on canvas, 40x60cm, 2023
Martha's Dance Installation & Detail, acrylic on canvas, wood, acrylic 40x60cm, 2023
Inspired by the legendary dancer Martha Graham, this painting explores movement, memory, and the complex dynamics of female relationships. A hybrid portrait emerges from ecstatic dance and experimental photography, where flesh transforms, sprouting talon-like nails in a moment of "becoming animal". At the center, a student-daughter figure hangs suspended under an authoritarian mother-teacher, embodying the tension between protection and control. A weathered wooden beam props the scene, while a single pearl evokes discipline and refinement. Part of my ongoing exploration of female archetypes, mythology, and spirituality, the work reflects mother-daughter bonds, inherited strength, and the transformative power of teaching, movement, and creative expression, inviting viewers into a space where bodies, histories, and archetypes collide.
Maenads With A Genet Cat Acrylic on canvas, 40x60cm, 2024
The Guards At Palau Reial Acrylic on canvas, 90x130cm, 2025
Incubation Care Acrylic on canvas, 50x70cm, 2024
Yellow Field Acrylic on Paper, 29x42cm, 2024
Pastoral Acrylic on canvas, 90x130cm, 2025
Liquorice Acrylic on canvas, 40x60cm, 2023
Garden Dynamics Acrylic on canvas, 50x70cm, 2024
Daughters On The Beach Acrylic on printed cardboard, 50x65cm, 2024
Mothers On The Beach Acrylic on printed cardboard, 50x65cm, 2024
These two works Daughters On The Beach and Mothers On The Beach began with a found image: a print of a beach scene by the celebrated Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla, discovered within one of two vintage frames Marianna came across in a second-hand shop. Drawn to the quiet history embedded in these objects, she chose to intervene upon the existing image, layering fragments of her own visual language over Sorolla’s luminous shoreline.
Using palette skins - delicate peelings and scrapings of dried paint salvaged from her studio - Marianna introduces an element of chance into the process. These recycled materials form the foundation for new gestures, textures, and unexpected ruptures within the surface, allowing a new narrative to unfold organically from the dialogue between past and present, memory and reinvention.
Portrait of Singer Acrylic on paper, 29x42cm, 2023
DJ in Studio Acrylic on paper, 29x42cm, 2023
Liquorice Portrait Acrylic on paper, 40x60cm, 2023
Rock Head Acrylic Paper, 29x42cm, 2024
Buddha Tree Acrylic Paper, 60x42cm, 2023
The Eye of Sierras Cardo Acrylic on paper, 42x29cm, 2024
Finca in Sierras de Cardo Acrylic on canvas, 30x40cm, 2024
Roques de Benet, Gandesa Acrylic Paper, 42x60cm, 2024