Tom Reed: everybody knows this is nowhere

TO M R EED EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE

bruno david gallery

TOM REED

EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE November 21, 2014 - January 10, 2015 Bruno David Gallery 3721 Washington Boulevard Saint Louis, Missouri 63108, U.S.A. info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com Owner/Director: Bruno L. David This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition “Tom Reed: everybody knows this is nowhere” at Bruno David Gallery.

Editor: Bruno L. David Catalogue Designer: Eileen Milford and Laine Johnson Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David Printed in USA All works courtesy of Tom Reed and Bruno David Gallery Photographs by Bruno David Gallery

Cover image: everybody knows this is nowhere (Installation view) First Edition Copyright © 2015 Bruno David Gallery All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery

CONTENTS

TOM REED: EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE

BY ROBERT N. JOHNSON Afterword

BY BRUNO L. DAVID CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY

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TOM REED: EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE

by Robert N. Johnson

Humanity’s framing and reframing of non-human nature informs Reed’s sensibility as a primary theme. A second is that art never begins ex nihilo, but is and has always been a conversation with prior ideas, images and artists. Humanity has no original interaction with an untouched nature. Humanity and nature have always been in medias res.

These themes are related. Reed’s work obeys what I will call a “nostalgia logic”. The images, colors and settings create a memorial to a bygone unaffected relationship of humanity with nature, a relationship that in many pieces seems to be particularly nostalgic for an idealized American childhood and its artifacts. Nostalgia logic runs through his subject matter, the framing of that subject matter, and the seamless connections between his artistic identities as painter, printer, sculptor, bricoleur, luthier and musician. While nostalgia logic is the language of his work, it is not its message. The message is contained in the conception of himself as conversing and interacting with the thoughts, illustrations and motifs that populate representations that surround us, from advertisements to children’s books.

Reed’s conception of non-human nature is prominent in his work. He offers up a range of representations: unpopulated wilderness, wilderness with faint signs of people, followed by substantial effects of people, and then, finally, nature worked up into artifacts.

Humans are always a subtext, implied viewers, absent agents and molders of a given reality that he represents without them. At one extreme, nature is molded to human purposes in gourds and the stuff of art. At the other, humans are utterly absent except as spectators of a world that was here before them and will outlive them. Humans are always off-stage, viewers, producers and directors but not represented subjects. Humanity’s presence in Reed’s work is in its absence, its traces found in its working up of nature.

However there is always an implicit limit: Nature never disappears even when it is turned into an artifact, and will eventually fully reclaim itself, as it threatens to do in ‘look out’. A creeping decrepitude is displayed in bleached planks that are both part of the tower but also frame the work.

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The off-stage presence of humanity finds expression most frequently as the imposition of a frame. Reed depicts frames in which we are invited to contextualize or peek through to a scene portrayed at a distance, enhancing a sense of longing for a direct connection to imagined subjects that have been separated from us. But as we focus, we become even more cognizant of the frame. The frame for Reed is, in fact, often a primary focus. Again, in ‘look out’, a frame of washed out cedar planks with oak leaves as adornments is itself framed by a parchment that seems almost nailed up as if it were a ‘Wanted’ poster from a movie western. In ‘current at night’, logs notched for a cabin star even as they frame the glimpse of a beautiful distant riffle. The beauty of the stripped and stacked logs competes with the serenity of the distant stream that calls us. In another work, dark, lonesome trees frame a warm quilt that hangs from them and in turn provides the frame for a joyful canoe in a stream at sunset (or sunrise); it is the trees and quilt that our attention returns to.

Everyone has experienced wonder in viewing mountains at a distance. Reed turns mountains into youthful siblings that one can walk around and interact with. Distance in cool colors, nearness in warm, and size are themselves signs of human interaction, though, again, absent and at a distance. And Reed’s gourd instruments represent psalms to an imagined time when instruments and music were an expression of our partnership with non-human nature. But even they have a double meaning, one representing nature, the other, human intervention and use.

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Afterword

BY BRUNO L. DAVID

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I am pleased to present an exhibition by Tom Reed. In everyone knows this is nowhere, the artwork is rustic in appearance and in mood. The pieces are often characterized by colorfully muted tree stumps, teepees, totem poles, and flowers; however, instead of a blank canvas, Reed begins most of his paintings on pages torn out of coloring books or word finds, which show through the layered paint and add new dimension and character. This process allows him to “start his work with a dialogue. inches From this unconventional beginning, he transforms these pages into beautifully stylized panels that can tell a story with just one image.

Reed states that “the link between experiencing nature and imagining it is at the foundation of my practice. The landscape becomes a setting for imagined realities and personal references to outsider art, poetry, and folk art. Taking cues from Joseph Yoakum and Martin Ramirez, I map out poetic and highly stylized depictions of natural settings where fiction and reality meet. In these compositions, intricate patterns elaborate a means to reinvent and question our relationship to nature. Ultimately, my pieces exist somewhere between reality and dreams, opening up a compelling and poetic window on both. inches Tom Reed is an artist, master printer, and senior lecturer in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Reed received his M.F.A. from the University of Iowa and has had several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. He lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri.

Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery. I would like to express my sincere thanks to John Foster for his thoughtful essay. I am deeply grateful to Eileen Milford and Laine Johnson, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Keri Robertson, Cleo Azariadis, Eileen Milford, Laine Johnson, Daniel Stumeier.

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CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION

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disperal and emptiness, 2014 Mixed media and collage on panel 39 x 39 inches (99.06 x 99.06 cm)

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flood at night, 2014 Mixed media and collage on panel 26 x 26-1/2 inches (66.04 x 67.31 cm)

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the source, 2014 Mixed media and collage on panel 19-1/2 x20-3/4 inches (49.53 x 52.705 cm)

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green tree, 2014 Mixed media and collage on panel 14-1/2 x 14-1/2 inches (Framed) (36.83 x 36.83 cm)

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blue mountain, 2014 flashe, black gesso, graphite 15 x 13 inches (Framed) (38.1 x 33.02 cm)

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pressing on, 2014 Mixed media and collage on panel 53 - 1/4 x 53 - 1/4 inches (Framed) (135.25 x 135.25 cm)

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mountain me, 2014 Mixed media and collage on panel 59 x 53- 1/4 inches (Framed) (149.86 x 135.25 cm)

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look out, 2014 Mixed media and collage on panel 53 -1/4 x 53 - 1/4 inches (135.25 x 135.25 cm)

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marker, 2013 Mixed media and collage on panel 19 x 18 inches (framed) (48.26 x 45.72 cm)

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current at night, 2013 Mixed media and collage on panel 40- 1/4 x 39 inches (framed) (102.24 x 99.06 cm)

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everybody knows this is nowhere, 2014 (installation view)

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islands, 2013 Colored pencil, flashe 14 x 13 inches (framed) (35.56 x 33.02 cm)

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flooded mountain, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe 15- 3/4 x 13 inches (framed) (40.01 x 33.02 cm)

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in the shadow, 2014 Walnut ink, flashe, colored pencil 13- 1/2 x 13 inches (framed) (34.29 x 33.02 cm)

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dusk til dawn, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard (Installation view)

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dusk til dawn 1, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard 25 x 13 inches (diptych) (63.5 x 33.02 cm)

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dusk til dawn 2, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard 25 x 13 inches (diptych) (63.5 x 33.02 cm)

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dusk til dawn 3, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard 25 x 13 inches (diptych) (63.5 x 33.02 cm)

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dusk til dawn 4, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard 25 x 13 inches (diptych) (63.5 x 33.02 cm)

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dusk til dawn 5, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard 27 x 13 inches (diptych) (68.58 x 33.02 cm)

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dusk til dawn 6, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard 28 x 13 inches (diptych) (71.12 x 33.02 cm)

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dusk til dawn 7, 2014 Colored pencil, flashe and graphite on matboard 26 x 13 inches (diptych) (66.04 x 33.02 cm)

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gourdjo, 2014 gourd, wood, masonite dimensions variable (3 elements)

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stump recordings, 2013 Foam, gesso, flashe, wood and electric motor 36 x 18 x 18 inches (91.44 x 45.72 x 45.72 cm)

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blue tower, 2014 Wood, foam, flashe, logs dimensions variable (2 elements)

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green flag outpost, 2014 Wood, foam, flashe, logs, concrete dimensions variable

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Tom Reed: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 2014 (installation view)

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Tom Reed: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 2014 (installation view)

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Tom Reed: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 2014 (installation view)

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Tom Reed: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 2014 (installation view)

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Tom Reed: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 2014 (installation view)

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TOM REED EDUCATION M.F.A. in Printmaking, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA M.A. in Printmaking, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA B.F.A. in Printmaking, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2014 2013 2012 2010 2009 2007 2005 2003

2000 1998 1997

Bruno David Gallery, “everybody knows this is nowhere,” St. Louis, MO (catalogue) 2207/2209, “Dusk Till Dawn,” St. Louis, MO Wrong Again Gallery, “Black Mountain,” Memphis, TN Grover Thurston Gallery, “Famous Anonymous Wilderness,” Seattle, WA Grover Thurston Gallery, “can’t see the forest(for the tree’s?),” Seattle, WA Philip Slein Gallery, “the land beyond,” St. Louis, MO Philip Slein Gallery, “drawings,” St. Louis, MO Elliot Smith Contemporary Art, “things I know, things people have told me,” St. Louis, MO Innsbrook Institute, “New Work,” Innsbrook, MO Anchor Graphics, “Less Happy Times, Prints, Drawings, and Sketchbooks,” Chicago, IL American Pop Culture Gallery, “Tom Reed Recent Prints and Drawings,” Nashville, TN Eve Drewlowe Gallery, “Misunderstanding, exhibition of large scale monoprints,” University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2014 2012

2011 2010

2009

2008

2007 2006

2004 2003 2001 1999

1998

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Mummies are Sitting Ducks, Cider Gallery, Lawrence, KS Figure Studies, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO Wit, Wisdumb and Worry, Ann Arbor Center, Ann Arbor, MI Let’s Talk About Love, MOCAD, Detroit, MI Nowhere Backwards, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO The Cat, The Dish, and the Spoon, Wonder Fair, Lawrence, KS Return of the Outlaw Printmakers, Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO Sketchbooks, Grover Thurston Gallery, Seattle, WA Aqua Art Fair, Philip Slein Gallery, Miami, FL Aqua Art Fair, Philip Slein Gallery, Miami, FL Art Chicago, Philip Slein Gallery, Chicago, IL Outlaw Printmakers, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 20, Philip Slein Gallery, St. Louis, MO We Like Each Other, Material, Memphis, TN Group Show, Gescheidle Gallery, Chicago, IL Summer Show, Elliot Smith Gallery, New York, NY Printmaking: A Contemporary Tradition, Schmidt Art Center, Belleville, IL tomato / tomato, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR New Work, Hot House Gallery, Fayetteville, AR Sketchbooks, Marshall Arts, Memphis, TN Nuvola, Farenheight Gallery, Kansas City, MO Faculty Exhibition, Reicher Gallery, Barat College, Lake Forest, IL Art Begins at Home..., Armstrong Gallery, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, IA The New Blood, New Blood, Baltimore, MD Emerging Artists 98, Vedanta Gallery, Chicago, IL MFA Exhibition, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA Salvation and Damnation, Crossman Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI

CURATORIAL 2009

Time Well Spent, Regional Arts Center, St. Louis, MO

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Johnson, Robert N. __________ __________ __________ Baran, Jessica Baran, Jessica Bonnetti, David

“Tom Reed: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere,” Bruno David Gallery Publication, 2014 “Unconventional Landscapes,” Design Observer, 2015 “Midwest edition,” New American Paintings, 2015 “Tom Reed,” All the Art, 2015 “Nowhere Backwards,” Riverfront Times, St. Louis, MO, 2012 “Return of the outlaw Printmakers,” Riverfront Times, St. Louis, MO, 2011 “Land Beyond review,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, 2007

HONORS & AWARDS 2013 2011 2010 2004 2003 2000

Visiting Artist, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT Visiting Artist, Cranbrook, Detroit, MI Visiting Artist, Brookhaven College, Dallas, TX Visiting Artist, University of Georgia, Athens, GA Visiting Artist, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR City of Chicago CAAP Grant, Chicago, IL Research Assistant Intaglio and Relief, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Ruth Julien Scholarship in Printmaking, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

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ARTISTS Laura Beard Heather Bennett Lisa K. Blatt Shawn Burkard Bunny Burson Michael Byron Carmon Colangelo Alex Couwenberg Jill Downen Yvette Drury Dubinsky Beverly Fishman Damon Freed

Douglass Freed Ellen Jantzen Michael Jantzen Kelley Johnson Howard Jones (Estate) Chris Kahler Bill Kohn (Estate) Leslie Laskey Patricia Olynyk Gary Passanise Judy Pfaff

Daniel Raedeke Tom Reed Frank Schwaiger Charles Schwall Christina Shmigel Thomas Sleet Shane Simmons Buzz Spector Cindy Tower Ken Worley Monika Wulfers