Tyson Reeder

Born in 1974, inFairfax, USA.
Lives and works in Chicago, USA.

Education

BFA, B.A. Montana State University, Helena, USA
University of Minnesota Art Center College of Design Skowhegan, Saint Paul, USA
Tyson Reeder

The Impressionists' fondness for toiling en plein air, painting what they observed in nature, went out with Cubism and pure abstraction. Toda y, in the age of iPhones and Instagram, the concept is so archaic that it's downright radical, which is what led Tyson Reeder to head outdoors with an easel to make his Beach Paintings series.
"Ali of my students, if they have to paint a beach, Google a beach," laments Reeder, who teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. May be with good reason: Painting on an actual beach isn't as easy as it looks, he says. "You have your shades on, you're getting sunburned, and sand is blowing in the paint. Then you bring you.r painting inside and say, 'What the hell is this?'"
Reeder has built his artistic practice-and growing reputation­with a sly sense of subversion. Seeing everyone else painting can­vases with a flattened sense of space, Reeder decided to make a picture ail about perspective: Shoe Store, with its yellow shelves dis­playing strappy heels on one side and striped sneakers on the other, practically invites the viewer to walk in and try on a pair. Reeder also parodies cutting-edge techniques that are ail the rage, such as digital printing directly onto canvas. In Green Bananas, ban ana peels flit through an abstract landscape like disoriented birds. "I was eating bananas, and I scanned a banana peel," he explains. He then collaged the images onto a canvas. "It's like a poor man's Photoshop." Reeder's ostensible subjects-flowers, boats, flip-flops-are inten­tionally pedestrian and, he insists, not meant as metaphors. Instead, his goal is "transforming the ordinary" in the manner of Pierre Bon­nard, "where the color becomes the subject," he says. Reeder's love affair with sensuous col ors is akin to that of the Fauvists of a century ago, and his paintings are peppered with unlikely patterns, some of which are triggered by thrift-store clothing finds. Occasionally, though, one senses that the subject resonates more deeply than the artist lets on. Reeder admits he's fascinated by shoes-he used to decorate sneakers for friends-and calls Foot Locker stores a "muse."
"He's become a painter of everyday life," says Matthew Higgs, director of the alternative exhibition space White Columns in New York. "The paintings seem casual and effortless, but they're actu­ally very particular. They're simultaneously charming, seductive, pleasurable, playful, and idiosyncratic."
Reeder typically paints on layers of newsprint or Japanese paper­he likes their smooth surfaces-affixed to canvas. He often injects an element of chance by beginning with abstract blotches of color washes. He then adds figures or trees, which may or may not align neatly with the underlying blobs, making for red faces, say, or vertical bands of color that read as skyscrapers. Sometimes he applies paint with cotton balls, then leaves them stuck on the canvas. There's no rule Reeder isn't afraid to break: Once, while painting on a Miami beach, he began by rendering large flowers in the foreground, ignoring passersby admonishing him to paint the background first.
Reeder grew up in Michigan, and much of his work germinates from his bemused-outsider perspective as a Midwesterner in an art world dominated by the coasts. He titled his first New York solo show "Milwaukee," his home before moving to Chicago. "To New Yorkers, it sounded exotic," Reeder says with a laugh. "Van Gogh had Arles, Gauguin had Tahiti, and I had Milwaukee."
Wisconsin also provided fodder for a series of art hijinks Reeder cooked up with his eider brother, Scott, also an artist, and Scott's wife, Elysia Borowy-Reeder, now executive director ofDetroit's Museum ofContemporary Art. In 2006, they held the Milwaukee International Art Fair in a Polish beer hall with a bowling alley in the basement. "It started as a joke," Reeder admits. But then important out-of-town galleries, like Gavin Brown's Enterprise, signed up for the dirt-cheap booths. Higgs calls it "one of the legendary events of the 2lst-century art world." In 2008 came the Dark Fair, an art fair held in New York at night, with the lights off. "We gave every collector a flashlight," Reeder says. The line to get in was down the black. Lately he's been channeling his comic tendencies into a comedy club and dance party, most recently held in a nine-by-nine-foot room in his loft. Like his other endeavors, Reeder says, "It's a mix of silliness and ambition."

Elle decor, Julie L. Belcove, June 2015
Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
IOWA, Paris
October 20 - December 10, 2016

FEED THE METER, Wandhaff
September 26, 2015 - January 30, 2016


Solo shows

2015
Office Baroque, Brussels, Belgium
New Paintings, CANADA Gallery, New York, USA

2013
Peregrine Program, Chicago, USA
Esparatyson, Roberto Paradise, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Beach Painting Club, Bas Fisher Invitational, Miami, USA
A Nerdier Red, The Hills Esthetic Center, Chicago, USA
Paradise Garage, Los Angeles, États-Unis

2012
Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, É USA

2011
Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, USA
Lump Gallery, Raleigh, USA

2010
New Paintings, The Green Gallery East, Milwaukee, USA

2008
Sweaters, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, USA
Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, USA

2007
Menomonee Valley, Jack Hanley Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2006
Tomorrow, Daniel Reich Gallery, USA
French Thoughts, Jack Hanley, San Francisco, USA

2005
Fruit Bomb, Greener Pastures Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, USA

2004
Hog Wash, Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, USA

2003
Milwaukee, Daniel Reich Gallery, USA

2002
Inner Vision of a Fresh Youth, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, USA
The Suburban, Oak Park, USA

Group shows

2016
IOWA, with Sadie Laska, Scott Reeder and Spencer Sweeney, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Paris, France

2015
Call and Response, Gavin Brown's enterprise, New York, USA

2014
Nuit Américaine, Office Baroque, Brussels, Belgium
New Image Painting, Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, USA

2013
Please Come to my Show: Invitations and Event Flyers from the MoMA Library, Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, USA
Beach Painting Club, Rachel Ufner Gallery, New York, USA
Plant Life, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, USA

2012
Hot Tub Time Machine, CANADA Gallery, New York, USA
Spaced, Jack Hankley Gallery, New York, USA
The Art of Cooking, Royal T, Los Angeles, USA
Amy and Wendy Yao's Artist Swap Meet, Hight Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree, USA

2010
With Walls, Museum 52, New York, USA
Holes, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, USA

2009
Curator's Choice: Works from MMoCA's Collection, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, USA

2008
I Won't Grow Up, curated by Donald Baechler and Beth DeWoody, Cheim and Read, New York, USA

2007
Wu-Tang Googleplex, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, Passerby, New York, USA
Big Secret Cashe, Angstrom Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

2006
Action Adventure, CANADA Gallery, New York, USA

2005
Desired Constellations, curated by Meredith Darrow, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, USA
Drunk vs. Stoned 2, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, USA
With Ur or Against Reality, Or Against Us, Willy Wonka Inc., Oslo, Norway
Christmas in July, Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles, USA

2004
The Four Color Pen Show commissariat d'exposition : General Store, Locusts Projects, Miami, USA
General Store Rocks, commissariat d'exposition : Andrea Zittel, High Desert Test Sites, Josua Tree, USA
Kids of the Black Hole, Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Emo Eco, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, USA
the infinite fill group show, commissariat d'exposition : Jamie Arcangel, Foxy Productions, New York, USA
California Earthquakes, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, USA
Group Show, Rolf Ricke Gallery, Cologne, Germany
Group Show, Nicolai Walner Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Happy Days are Here Again, curated by Andre Schlechtriem, David Zwirner, New York, USA
Full Disclosure, Geofrey Young Gallery, New York, USA
Drunk vs. Stoned, Gavin Brown¹s Enterprise, New York, USA
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?, Champion Fine Arts, Los Angeles, USA

2003
Group Show, Hayworth Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Daag Ons Niet Uit, Holland, The Netherlands
Street Smart, curated by Simon Watson, Rhona Hofman Gallery, Chicago, USA
Teenage Rebel: The Bedroom Show, curated by Scott Hug, John Connelly Presents, New York, USA
Group Show, curated by Clarissa Dalrymple, Grant Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA

2002
K48 3 : Teenage Rebel in Paris, curated by Scott Hug, Agnes B., Paris, France
, D'Amelio Terras, New York, USA
Karaoke Death Machine, Cuchifritos, New York, USA
Okemos, Scott and Tyson Reeder, The Suburban, Chicago, USA
Milhaud, Deluxe Projects, Chicago, USA

2001
, Laura Owens Studio & Chicago Project Room, Los Angeles, USA

Curated shows

2013
Club Nutz, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, USA

2012
PAINTED, The Green Gallery, Milwaukee, USA
Club Nutz, ICA Philadelphia, USA
Club Nutz, High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree, USA

2011
Club Nutz, Salon 94, New York, USA
Club Nutz at Here/ Not There, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, É USA

2009
Club Nutz, Frieze Art Fair, London, Untied-Kingdom
Dark Fair, Koelnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
Presents, Rowley Kennerk Gallery, Chicago, USA

2008
Milwaukee International Art Fair, Polish Falcons, Milwaukee, USA
Dark Fair, Swiss Institute ContemporaryArt, New York, USA

2007
Small Painting Show, Ulrich Museum, Wichita, USA
The Four - Color Pen Show, Locust Projects, Miami, USA

2006
Drunk vs Stoned 2, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, USA

2005
Drunk vs Stoned, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, Passerby, New York, USA
Laura Owens, General Store, Milwaukee, USA
Pentti Monkkonen, General Store, Milwaukee, USA

Performances

2012
Egg Fugue, Royal T, Los Angeles, USA

2011
Sonata in 2-D, Santos Party House, New York, USA
Sonata in 2-D, Performa 11, Ha! Comedy Club, New York, USA

2010
Sonata in 2-D, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, USA

2009
Swiss Cheese, Rob Pruitt's Flea Market, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, Frieze Art Fair, London, United-Kingdom
Egg Fugue, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, USA
Press

2016
Make Painting Great Again The New Yorker June 29, 2016
CANADA is Making Painting Great Again by Andrew Nunes The Creators Project: Vice Magazine June 22, 2016
I Love Canada's 17-Artist State-of-the-Medium Spectacle 'Make Painting Great Again.' It Also Makes Me Worry for the Fate of the Lower East Side..  by Jerry Saltz, Vulture.com, June 14, 2016

2015
Tyson Reeder by Julie L. Belcove, Elle Decor June 1, 2015
Reviews: Tyson Reeder by Elisabeth Kley, ARTNEWS May 1, 2015
Tyson Reeder by Laura McLean-Ferris, ARTFORUM April 2015
Tyson Reeder: New Paintings The New Yorker February 2015
Playful, With a Joie de Vivre by Martha Schwendener, The New York Times January 15, 2015

2014
TYSON REEDER: BEACH PAINTING CLUB by Laura Randall, The Miami Rail May 1, 2014

2013
Scott & Tyson Reeder CLUB NUTZ IN NEW YORK by Elisabeth Kley, artnet January 1, 2013

2011
Tyson Reeder The New Yorker, July 4, 2011
Tyson Reeder Karen Rosenberg The New York TImes, June 16, 2011

2008
Scott and Tyson Reeder talk to each other by Scott Reeder NY Arts Magazine January 12, 2008

2002
ART IN REVIEW; Tyson Reeder by Roberta Smith The New York Times March 22, 2002
IOWA
IOWA
October 20, 2016
IOWA
IOWA
October 20, 2016