Erik ReeL, born and raised in Seattle, lives and maintains a studio in downtown Ventura. Represented by collections in New York, Berlin, Los Angeles,, Chicago, Buenos Aires, Houston, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Paris, London, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Seattle, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Santa Fe [NM] . Public collections include: Seattle City Light, City of Seattle, Museum of Ventura County. ReeL’s painting emphasizes improvisation, exploring issues related to mark-making and signification.
ReeL attended Whitman College, majoring in mathematics; the University of California, at Berkeley; and the University of Washington in mathematics, art history, and studio art, graduating summa cum laude in 1975. He studied art history with Rainer Crone and Ettlinger, painting with Jacob Lawrence and Michael Spafford, color with Dahn, a student of Albers, sumi-e with George Tsutakawa, and Chinese brush with Hsai Chen.
In the 1970s ReeL wrote on art for Vanguard, ArtExpress, High Performance, ArtWeek, a weekly column for the Bellevue Journal-American daily newspaper, and was arts editor for the Seattle Voice city magazine. He sat on the Seattle Arts Commission Special Task Force for Media, and the Special Task Force for Educational Institutions in the Arts. For half a decade he taught art history, color theory, life painting, and design at the Seattle Central Community College before leaving Seattle in 1984, coming to California in 1995.
Selected Exhibition History
Solo and Two-Person
2018 Erik ReeL, Gray Space gallery, Santa Barbara
2017 Epiphany, Porch Gallery, Ojai, California
2016 Full Circle, Morris Graves Museum of Aart, Eureka, California
2014 Silence, SCIART, Camarillo, California
2014 Rebar, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California
2014 Standing in Boots, w/ Nash Rightmer, WAV, Ventura
2014 Featured artist, City Clerk’s Office, Ventura City Hall, Ventura, California
2013 Tabula Rasa, 643 Project Space, Ventura, California
2013 Suite Spot, Ventura Executive Suites, Ventura, California
2012 60 @ 60, Ventura, California
2011 Signs, Vita Art Center, Bell Arts Factory, Ventura
2011 Markings II, B Street Space, Oxnard, California
2011 Markings I, B Street Space, Oxnard, California
2009 Viva la Vida, Laurel Ventura gallery, Ventura
2009 Turbulence, w/ Vonder Gray, Gallerie 255, Ventura
2008 Erik ReeL at the Love House, Ventura, California
2008 Caruso Woods, Santa Barbara, California
2008 Faculty Club, University of California, Santa Barbara
2006 Autochthon, Caruso Woods, Santa Barbara
2005 Indonesian, Caruso Woods gallery, Santa Barbara
2004 Faculty Club, University of California, Santa Barbara
2004 Musician’s Den, Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara
2003 3 Venues, Santa Barbara Film Commission
2003 Faculty Club, University of California, Santa Barbara
2003 Night Balcony, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara, California
2002 Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara, California
2002 Vinland, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara, California
2002 Yaman Rag, FC, Unversity of California, Santa Barbara
2001 Faculty Club, University of California, Santa Barbara
2001 Gardens of the Night, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara
2000 Dreams of Paradise, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara
1988 – 1996 did not exhibit
1987 Mazey Hickey Gallery, Seattle
1986 Whatcom County Museum, Bellingham, Washington
1985 Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1984 Cornish Institute for the Arts, Seattle
1984 Night Voices, with Sue Ann Harkey, Seattle Art Museum
1984 Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1984 Face to Face, with Jimmy Jet, Seattle Pacific University
1983 Jackson Street gallery, Seattle, Washington
1983 I Dream the Shattering Price of Wisdom, Ace, Seattle
1982 Warehouse Paintings, Vogue, Seattle
1981 Wall Drawing, and/or alternative space, Seattle
1979 Facing Death, Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington
1979 Some Seattle Drawings, and/or alternative space, Seattle,
1977 A Reading After Robbe-Grillet, Cabaret Voltaire, Seattle
1977 Alexander Sasanoff, Seattle, Washington
1975 Alexander Sasanoff, Seattle, Washington
Group
2018 82d National, Butler Institute of American Art, OH
2017 Art For Living, CICA Museum, Seoul, South Korea
2017 From the Collection, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA
2017 Contemporary Abstraction, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, CA
2016 For the Earth, Postmodern, Washington, DC
2015 Out of the Great Wide Open, Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara
2015 Retablos for Peace, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California
2014 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss gallery, Santa Barbara, California
2014 Cuento Cups, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California
2014 Ventura County Arts Council, Ventura, California
2013 100 Grand, Sullivan Goss gallery, Santa Barbara
2013 In the Detail, SCIART, Camarillo, Califonria
2013 Elizabeth Gordon gallery, Santa Barbara, California
2013 WAV [Working Artists Ventura], California
2013 Art for Peace, Vita Art Center, Bell Arts Factory, Ventura
2012 Something Old, Something New, Pistol Productions, Ventura
2012 Undressed, Pistol Productions, Ventura, California
2012 SCIART, Camarillo, California
2012 Vita Art Center, Bell Arts Factory, Ventura, California
2011 Vita Art Center, Bell Arts Factory, Ventura, California
2011 StoneWorks, Ventura, California
2010 Print Electronico, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2010 Epocha Nueva, Casa Del Mexicano, Santa Paula, California
2010 Laurel Ventura Gallery, California
2009 California State University Channel Islands Invitational
2009 VCAC Selects Ventura’s Best, Ventura, California
2008 Mirror, curated: Paul Benavidas, Ventura,
2008 Earth and Sky, Gallerie 255, Ventura, California
2008 Caruso Woods, Santa Barbara, California
2007 Rainbow Alliance Show, LGBT Support Network, Ventura
2007 Caruso Woods, Santa Barbara, California
2006 Elizabeth Edwards, Palm Desert, California
2006 Caruso Woods, Santa Barbara, California
2005 Elizabeth Edwards, Palm Desert, California
2005 Caruso Woods, Santa Barbara, California
2004 Society of American Graphic Artists [SAGA], New York City
2004 Landscape Unlimited, Chicago, Illinois
2004 17th Parkside National, University of Wisconsin
2004 McNeese State, c: M. Druit, Sr Curator, Menil, Houston
2004 Signal+Noise, Center4Research/Electronic Art TEch., UCSB
2004 Artlink Contemporary, Fort Wayne, Indiana
2004 Montpelier Center for the Arts, Montpelier, Virginia
2004 Las Vegas Center for Art and Design, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2004 Elizabeth Edwards, Palm Desert, California
2004 Buddha Abides, Caruso Woods, Santa Barbara, California
2003 Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
2002 Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
2000 Artists for World Peace, Pavilion for World Peace, Kobe, Japan
2000 Artists for World Peace, Karpeles Museum, Santa Barbara
1988 – 1996 did not exhibit
1985 New York, LA, Seattle, COCA, traveled: Seattle, LA, New York
1985 Seattle Art Museum, c: Gene Barto, Brooklyn Museum of Art
1985 Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
1984 City of Seattle Collects, c: Howard Fox, Seattle Art Museum
1984 Dark Voices, performance, Seattle Art Museum
1984 Burning Angels, Cornish Institute for the Arts, Seattle
1984 Sliver Birds, performance, Poetry Seattle
1983 Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1980 Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1979 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
1979 William Traver Gallery, Seattle, Washington
1978 6500 x 20, and/or alternative space, Seattle
1978 Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington
1977 International Flux Fest, c: George Maciunas, and/or, Seattle
1976 c: Wayne Thiebaud, Del Mar Museum, Corpus Christie, Texas
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