John Reilly is a critically acclaimed and award-winning New Jersey artist, born in Brooklyn, NY in 1942. He received his early art training at the School of Art and Design, formally known as ‘The School of Industrial Art’ in Manhattan, where he studied advertising art. By the age of twenty-three, he operated a mid-town-based sales promotion agency, eventually expanding the business to service large companies such as Bacardi Rum, Johnson and Johnson, Nabisco, and KLM Airlines. In 1985, John began painting with the same focus, creativity, and energy that drove his success in advertising, so he decided to study painting in NYC at the Art Students' League, the National Academy of Design with Sam Adoquei, and privately with Burt Silverman. He studied portrait painting with Everett Raymond Kinstler, whom he considered a close friend and mentor. In New Jersey, he also attended the Newark School of Fine Arts.

Reilly's paintings are spontaneous depictions of everyday life executed with oil, with the main goal of capturing the unique visual essence of his subjects. They range from belly dancers to corporate executives, and quiet churches to roaring roller coasters, all painted with the use of vibrant colors. Reilly employs his subjects to express his passion for variety and a serendipitous love for life, where the bold use of color is tempered by sensitive brushwork.

Throughout his life, Reilly was a prolific painter. He was a longtime member of the Salmagundi Club and The Art Students League of New York, and with an exhibition history which includes such venues as Nabisco Gallery, Audubon's Artists' at the Salmagundi Club, and the National Academy of Design. John's passion and contribution to the art world led him to have solo shows at the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, the Watchung Arts Center, the Somerset Art Association, and the Robert Wood Johnson Children's Specialized Hospital. John's work is held in private collections throughout the East Coast of the US and in Ireland. John Reilly died on April 19, 2021 in Hope, New Jersey at the age of 78.