Erik ReeL
ReeL's technique exhibits a high degree of transparency, layering, sfgraffito and graffitto, with a strong sense of hand, the hand-made, and an absence of any references to the material world. This work can be seen as a thorough-going critique of materialism, the machine or machine-made, and the triumph of feeling over the manufactured. For ReeL, marking is a defining characteristic of the human and the primordial act of signification and meaning for human consciousness. - Nikki Arconi, 2011
Born: Seattle, 1952
Based: Portland, Oregon, USA
Education
1975 Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, University of Washington, Seattle
1974 University of California, Berkeley
1971-73 Whitman College, Washington, mathematics and philosophy
Selected Solo Shows
Erik ReeL : Zero Point, GraySpace Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2018
Erik ReeL : Full Circle, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, California, USA (catalog), 2016
Silence, Director's Choice Show, SCIART, Camarillo, California, USA, 2014
Rebar at the Tool Room, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California, USA, 2014
Tabula Rasa, 643 Project Space, Ventura, US (catalog), 2013
60 @ 60, 60 paintings at 60 years, Ventura, California, USA, 2012
Markings I, Markings II, [two shows], B Street Project Space, Oxnard, California, USA, 2011
Signs of a Lost Civilization, Vita Arts Center, Bell Arts Factory, Ventura, California, USA, 2011
Viva la Vida, Laurel Ventura Gallery, Ventura, California, USA, 2009
Quantum Dynamics of Painting, UCSB Faculty Club, Santa Barbara, California, US (catalog), 2008
Solo exhibitions, Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008
Solo exhibition in three venues, Santa Barbara Visitors Bureau and Film Commission, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2003
Solo Exhibitions, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2000, 2001, 2002 (2), 2003
Thirty Drawings, Mazey Hickey Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1987
Figure: Narrative, Whatcom County Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington, USA, 1986
Testament, Cornish Institute for Allied Arts, Seattle, Wasshington, USA, 1984
Solo exhibitions, Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1983, 1984, 1985
I Dream the Shattering Price of Wisdom, The Warehouse Paintings, Ace Studios, Seattle, Washington, USA 1983
Wall Drawing, and/or, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1979, 1981
Facing Death, Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, USA, 1979
Alexander Sasanoff, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1975, 1977
Selected Collective Shows
Butler Institute for American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, USA, 2018
From the Collection, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, California, USA, 2017
Objects of Impossibility: Contemporary Abstraction, Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2017
Epiphany, Two-person show: Erik ReeL and Diane Silver, Porch Gallery, Ojai, California, USA, 2017
Art For Living, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art [CICA Museum], Seoul [Gyonggi], South Korea, 2017
For the Earth, Postmodern, Washington, DC, US (catalog), 2016
Out of the Great Wide Open, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2015
Retablos For Peace, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California, USA, 2015
Standing in Boots, two-person exhibition with Nash Rightmer, WAV [Working Artists Ventura], Ventura, California, USA, 2014
Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2013, 2014
Art For Peace, Vita Art Center, Bell Arts Center, Ventura, California, USA, 2013
SCIART, Camarillo, California, USA, 2012, 2013
Print Electronico, international exhibition of computer-generated art, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2010
Epocha Nueva, Casa Del Mexicano, Santa Paula, California, USA, 2010
Turbulence, two-person show with Vonder Gray, Galerie 251, Ventura, USA, 2009
Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, USA, 2009, 2014
California State University, Channel Islands, Invitational, curated by Jack Reilly, California, USA, 2009
I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2008
Ventura County Arts Commission Show, curated by Paul Benavidas, Ventura, California, USA, 2008
Erik ReeL and Friends at the Love House, Love House, Ventura, California, USA, 2008
Best of Ventura County, Ventura County Arts Commission, Ventura, California, USA, 2008, 2009
Earth and Sky, Galerie 251, Ventura, California, USA, 2008
The Gay Pride Show, Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2006, 2007, 2008
The Rainbow Alliance Show, LGBT Support Network Rainbow Alliance, Architexture, Ventura, California, USA, 2007
Picasso, Chagall, and Contemporary Master Prints, Modern Masters Gallery, Palm Desert, California, USA, 2006
71st SAGA Annual Print Show, Society of American Graphic Artists, New York, USA (catalog), 2004
17th Parkside National Print Exhibition, University of Wisconsin, USA (catalog), 2004
Works on Paper, curated by Matthew Pruit, senior curator at the Menil collection, Houston, McNeese State University, Louisiana, USA, 2004
Montpelier Center for the Arts, Montpelier, Virginia, USA, 2004
24th National Print Exhibition, Artlink Contemporary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, 2004
Las Vegas Center for Art and Design, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, 2004
Palindrome scrim, for multi-media piece with improvised score, choreography, Signal+Noise, CREATE + MAP [Media Art Lab] programs at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2004
Landscape Unlimited, Non-conventional takes on the American landscape, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2004
Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2004
Elizabeth Edwards Gallery, Palm Desert, California, USA, 2003, 2005, 2006
Linda Moore Gallery, San Diego, California, USA, 2003
Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 2002, 2003
Contemporary Art Forum, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2000, 2001, 2002
Artists for World Peace, Pavilion for World Peace, Kobe, Japan, 2000
Artists for World Peace, Karpeles Museum and Manuscript Library, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2000
New York, LA, Seattle, Center on Contemporary Art [COCA], inaugural COCA traveling exhibition of artists based in the three cities, Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; 1985
City of Seattle Collects, curated by Howard Fox of LACMA, selections from the city of Seattle art collection, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984
East: West Dialogue, curated by Gene Barto of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, and Brooklyn Art Museum, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 1984
Face to Face, two-person show with Jimmy Jet, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984
Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984, 1985
Silver Birds, performance with Sue Ann Harkey, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984
Night Mind, performance with Sue Ann Harkey, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984
A Reading After Robbe-Grillet, performance with Kathleen Hunt, Featured Reader, Poetry Seattle, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984
Burning Angels, performance, Cabaret Voltaire and with dancers at the the Virginia Street Studio, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984
Krakatoa Kriterion, exhibition of underground painters, curated by Erik ReeL, Jackson Street Gallery at 123 Jackson Street, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984
Gallery Artists, Jackson Street Gallery at 123 Jackson Street, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1983
Chihuly et al., Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1980
Eight Seattle Artists, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1979
Kodak International, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA, 1979
6500 x 20, an international invitational exhibition of work created on the Xerox 6500 color copier, and/or alternative space, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1978
Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington, USA, 1978
International Flux Fest, curated by George Maciunas, and/or alternative space, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1977
National Drawing Show, curated by Wayne Thiebaud, Del Mar Museum, Corpus Christie, Texas, USA, 1976
Collections
Represented in private collections based in Buenos Aires, Berlin, Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Houston, Indianapolis, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Paris, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Santa Fe [NM], Seattle, and Seoul.
Public collections include the permanent collections of: Morris Graves Museum of Art, Seattle City Light, City of Seattle, Czong Institute of Contemporary Art, Museum of Ventura County, Whitman College.
Selected lectures, panels, and symposia
Neither Supernatural Nor Mechanical, Artists Talk/interview, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, 2021.
From Fluxus to Rebar, Artists Talk, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California, 2014.
Public lecture in conjunction with solo exhibition at Whatcom County Museum, Bellingham, Washington, 1986.
Panel on Art Criticism and Contemporary Painting, in conjunction with solo exhibition Whatcom County Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, Washington, 1986.
Symposium on Visual Art and Media: Politics and Critique. Seattle Media Library, 1985.
Critics Symposium on Painting, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, 1985.
From Titian to Clemente: Transformations in the Painterly Tradition in Italy. Public lecture, Cornish Institute of the Arts, Seattle, Washington, 1984.
The Rebirth of Painting. Public lecture, Seattle Art Museum, 1984.
Dialectics of Transavantguardism: Wolfgang Max Faust vs. Germano Celant, Public lecture, Seattle Public Library, 1984.
Graffito Graphics: the Berlin Wall, Urban Graffiti, and the New Painting. Public lecture, Seattle Pacific University, 1984.
Sources in My Work, public lecture, Cornish Institute for the Arts, Seattle, 1984.
Painting Today, Public lecture, Cornish Institute for the Arts, Seattle, 1984.
Painterly Painting, Again, Public lecture, Seattle Art Museum, 1984.
Late Painting: Picasso, Matisse, de Chirico, Chagall, et alia, Public lecture, Seattle Art Museum, 1983.
Late de Chirico and the Next Generation: Clemente, Palladino, Cucci, Public lecture, Seattle Central Community College, 1983.
Teaching Color Theory: Gerrittsen Schema, RGB, Hex, and the Preparation of Visual Artists and Designers for a Digital World, Public lecture, Lecture series, Seattle Public Library, 1983.
Teaching Color Theory: Gerrittsen Schema, RGB, Hex, and the Preparation of Visual Artists and Designers for a Digital World, Public lecture, Lecture serieis, Seattle Central Community College, 1983.
Color Theory: The Bauhaus Tradition Today: Itten, Klee, Albers, Dahn, ReeL, Public lecture, Seattle Central Community College, 1982.
Color Theory: Gerrittsen Schema, Visual Constancies, Color Effect, and Painting. Public lecture, Seattle Central C. College,k 1981.
An Objective Criterion for Temperature Contrast: Itten was Wrong, Seattle Central College Auditorium, 1981.
Fluxus Flumoxed, Public lecture commemorating the passing of George Maciunas, founder of Fluxus, Seattle Masonic Hall, 1980.
Color Theory Today: Preparing Visual Artists for the Computer Age, Why Teach Hexidecimal and RGB Representations. Seattle Public Library, 1980.
Color Theory Today: Why Classical Mixing Theories Do Not Work, Seattle Public Library, 1980.
Color Theory Today: Gerrittsen Schema, Transmission Curves, and Digital Representations, Seattle Central Community College Auditorium, 1980.
Color Theory: A Comprehensive Conceptual Scheme for Artists and Designers, Public lecture, Seattle Public Library, 1980.
The Role of Visual Constancies in the Teaching of Color Theory to Artists and Designers, Public Lecture, Seattle Central Community College, 1980.
Edwin Land and the Revolution in Perceptual Psychology in the 1950s and Its Impact on Color Theory: What Artists Need to Know, Public Lecture, Seattle Central Community College, 1980.
Voltaire's Cafe: Performance Art Today, Evergreen State College, 1979.
Performance Art Today: Sources and Contexts, Public lecture, Washington Hall, Seattle, 1979.
For Bibliography and background see Bibliography and Bio.