Scott Reeder

Born 1970 in Ann Arbor, Michigan 
Lives and works in Chicago, IL and Detroit, MI

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Education

MFA, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1998
Visva Barhati University, Santiniketan, India, 1996
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, New York, 1995
BFA, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 1994
Yale/Norfolk Summer Program, 1993

About The Artist

Scott Reeder’s paintings are studies in contradiction: Abstract and representative, amateur and cutting-edge, silly and sincere. His “pasta paintings,” with their variant marks, reference Abstract Expressionism but are made with the elaborate alphabet of noodle types, and his text paintings, pairs of four-letter words like“Post Cats,” and “Cool Shit”–channel Ed Ruscha via a lo-fi teenager aesthetic. His list paintings, such as the hilarious “alternate titles for recent exhibitions I’ve seen,” are comical blends of topical mundanity and absurdist existentialism.

Reeder was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2011 and has been included in group exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London; the Museum of Contemporary art San Diego, San Diego, CA; and the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, OR. Reeder’s work is included in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta; and the Kadist Foundation, Paris.

In January 2014, Reeder debuted his first feature-length film project, Moon Dust.

After moving to Chicago from Milwaukee, Reeder became an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he also founded the nomadic comedy club, Club Nutz, which hosts a variety of performances, musical events, lectures, screenings, and dance parties around the globe.

Reeder, in tandem with his brother Tyson, has also curated several exhibitions, including Drunk vs. Stoned and Drunk vs. Stoned 2 at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise and The Early Show at White Columns, both in New York.

In 2002, with his brother Tyson and wife Elysia Borowy-Reeder, Reeder opened General Store, a storefront gallery in Milwaukee, and he is also widely known for creating ZeroTV.com in 1999 with brother Tyson Reeder, and filmmaker Chris Smith. He is represented by Kavi Gupta gallery in Chicago, IL, and Lisa Cooley in New York, NY.

Galleries

CANADA, New York
Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago
The Green Gallery, Milwaukee

Select Permanent Collection

Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Walker Art Center Collection, MN

 

Work

Exhibitions

  • Anything for a Laugh: Humor in Contemporary Art

    The works for this exhibition range from works that address serious concerns with humorous affect to others whose intent is more purely comedic. Together, they provide an intriguing snapshot of the manner in which comic strategies manifest themselves in contemporary art.

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