Between 2003 and 2004, O'Reilly undertook a residency with SymbioticA, a bio-art project based in the department of Human Anatomy, University of Western Australia.
[3] She has received several major commissions and in 2001 was invited to produce work for Span2 international performance art residency in London.
She was the focus of a major controversy in the British press,[4] angering British animal rights activists by performing a durational piece with a dead pig, at the Newlyn Art Gallery in Penzance, southwest England.
[5] The work was commissioned for the show 'Interspecies' by The Arts Catalyst, and was shown at Cornerhouse Manchester[6] and the A Foundation, London.
In 2020 O'Reilly became International Randall Chair in sculpture at Alfred University, New York.