Jennifer Reeves

Max Protetch, New York
Through February 17

Truth seekers beware. What you discover may not be beauty and nobility. Truth can be obstreperous. It can humiliate, infuriate, and consternate those with whom it is shared. In such circumstances, truth-sayers risk the consequences. Driven, presumably, by equal measures of anger, impudence, and integrity, Jennifer Reeves braves the repercussions. Even though the targets of her verbal barbs are the art professionals upon whom her career depends, she brandishes her insulting insights on the surface of her paintings.

Dealers reveal their own ignominy: "Beauty is hip if it sells. Who gives a fuck if it means anything?" Critics are brutalized with sarcasm, "Thank God for Assholes!" And a collector confesses to being a lout, "I buy the coolest art, but I'm just a butthead like you." Reeves' works are as fresh (vital) as they are fresh (impudent). Her radioactive epithets suit the high voltage paintings upon which they appear. Ungainly heaps, hulking lumps, and slithering serpentines occupy the foregrounds and suggest those elite members of the art professions she exposes as corrupt or foolish.

These forms are constructed out of rhythmic patterns of impastoed acrylic paint. The relief is so deep that real highlights and shadows dance across the surface along side those that Reeves artfully paints. Their rich tonalities either echo the pastel hues of the background fields, or ricochet off of them. Reeves dares to trivialize the cherished principles of art, expose the pretense of its esteemed advocates, and chastise its renowned masters. She defends her audacity by stating simply, "I always thought abstraction was the expression of what goes on on the inside, manifested outward for all to see."

However, she is not unarmed. Reeves has erected two lines of defense against those with a vindictive spirit and the capability of ruining her career. First, she is an accomplished painter. Second, she implicates herself in the human foibles she assigns to others. The last painting in the series includes the text, "We are all nerds." She explains, "I don't think it is hard to connect one nerd to another. We all have that element in ourselves. That is the human element. That is where we touch."




Linda Weintraub