Arts and Letters

Jessi Reaves (b. 1986; Portland, OR) makes sculptures that confront the assumptions and values embedded in objects of daily life. Early works incorporate severed limbs of mid-century furniture in crude constructions that humorously question the elevation of clean lines and rational forms to universal good taste. Recent sculptures have become visually dense, using handiwork and ornamentation to achieve an almost grotesque sense of accumulation.

The works in process invented the mirror revolve loosely around Reaves’s interest in objects that reflect our evolving relationship to labor and the handmade. Some sculptures contain simple woodworking projects, such as carved wooden bowls with the crude marks of a hobbyist’s practice. Others incorporate objects of domestic self-sufficiency, such as rotating machines like lazy Susans or bachelor’s stools, convertible pieces of furniture designed in the eighteenth century for single men that transform with a toggle. A distorted image of a New Deal mural of men mining steel and milling lumber grounds the installation.

The exhibition began at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis last fall. At the Walker, Reaves made over the gallery with elements of “municipal dimensionality,” including a drooping green curtain hung at the awkward yet practical height where public buildings add wainscoting or special paint to protect their walls from wear. At Arts and Letters, Reaves has altered and remixed some of these display materials to create modular sculptures that will join the other works in the show.

Arts and Letters commissioned Sheila Heti to write a text to accompany the exhibition. It will be released as part of our Reader series later this spring.

Arts and Letters will host an opening celebration for the exhibition on Saturday, March 14, from 4 to 7pm. This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome. Please let us know if you plan to attend here.

Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror is organized by the Walker Art Center. The exhibition is curated by Mary Ceruti, Executive Director; with Laurel Rand-Lewis, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center. Its presentation at the American Academy of Arts and Letters is curated by Jenny Jaskey, Chief Curator.

Support for this exhibition is provided by Jane Hait and Justin Beal, and Nemesis Foundation. Special thanks to Alex Berns, Mika Kol, Sofia Paz, Laura Swift, and Hoffman Donahue Gallery, New York/Los Angeles.

Major support for contemporary exhibitions at Arts and Letters is provided by Patrick Collins.

Arts and Letters exhibitions are also made possible by the Childe Hassam Fund, Eugene Speicher Fund, and Huntington Exhibition and Museum Fund, and by members of Arts and Letters.