Dublin-based artist Sam O’Reilly describes his ongoing project Process as both a celebration of screen printing and a call to reconnect with the act of making. Through a body of prints built around CMYK and halftone techniques, he invites viewers and fellow artists to look closely at what happens before an artwork is finished. The project aims not only to expand Dublin’s already rich print culture but also to spark curiosity in the medium for newcomers and experienced printmakers alike.
O’Reilly’s approach places strong emphasis on the CMYK process, a technique often associated with commercial printing. Instead of treating it as a mechanical way to reproduce images, he uses CMYK as a tool for transformation. Each layer becomes an opportunity to build new colour relationships, distort forms and guide the viewer’s eye deeper into the printed surface. By foregrounding halftone pattern, colour separation and the physical rhythms of printmaking, he elevates CMYK into a fine art practice.
“My goal with my art is to highlight the beauty in process, both in print and in everyday life,” O’Reilly says. “In an age where technology and specifically AI wants to take making away from people, my art encourages a slow investment into the journey of process, instead of obsession with a quick finished product.”
This emphasis on slowness is evident in Self Made Man 1, a four layer screen print created by choosing the halftone pattern of each individual square and selecting its colour one at a time. The print becomes a meditation on repetition, patience and attention. The structure of the work foregrounds the labour that goes into it, making the print not just an image but a record of decisions.
O’Reilly’s prints 75 and 45 continue this theme through a series of CMYK abstractions built around the human body. By obscuring the physique of the bodybuilder and erasing identifiable features, he shifts focus away from surface perfection and toward the process behind both the artwork and the body itself. The prints encourage viewers to move beyond contemporary pressures shaped by celebrity culture and social media, where bodies are often reduced to curated images rather than lived experiences.
At the core of Process is a belief that making has intrinsic value. It is a rejection of quick, polished results and a reminder of the satisfaction that comes from engaging deeply with material and technique. For O’Reilly, printmaking becomes a metaphor for both art and bodybuilding: each requires time, effort, discipline and a willingness to embrace incremental progress.
“My work is a rejection of the pressure put on people’s body image,” he explains. “I want viewers to recognise the value in the making of the body or the image, rather than the idealised version of it.”
By exploring the physicality of screen print and the cultural narratives surrounding the human form, O’Reilly builds a practice grounded in honesty and craft. Process is not simply a series of prints. It is an invitation to slow down, look closely and rediscover the pleasure of thoughtful, hands-on creation.
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