Erik ReeL in his studio with collector, ethnographer, sociologist, documentary filmmaker, and feminist scholar extraordinaire, France Winddance Twine, 2018. Photo: Rhonda P. Hill.


ReeL's technique exhibits a high degree of transparency, layering, sfgraffito and graffitto, with a strong sense of hand, the hand-made, and an absence of any references to the material world. This work can be seen as a thorough-going critique of materialism, the machine or machine-made, and the triumph of feeling over the manufactured. For ReeL, marking is a defining characteristic of the human and the primordial act of signification and meaning for human consciousness. - Nikki Arconi, 2011



Erik ReeL


Born: Seattle, 1952
Based: Portland, Oregon, USA



Education


1979-82   graduate studies, University of Washington, Seattle, art history and criticism

1975        Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, University of Washington, Seattle
1974        University of California, Berkeley
1971-73   Whitman College, Washington, mathematics and philosophy 



Selected Solo Shows


Erik ReeL: Texture of Time, Sheehan GalleryWhitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, USA, 2025


Chasm of Time, The Place, Portland, Oregon, USA, 2023


Erik ReeL, three museum tour, curated R. Rhodes, USA, 2020, [cancelled, COVID 19]


Erik ReeL: American Odyssey, three venue tour, northern Italy, 2019, [cancelled, COVID19]


Erik ReeL : Zero Point, GraySpace Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2018


Erik ReeL : Full Circle, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, California, USA  (catalog), 2016


Silence, Director's Choice Exhibition, SCIART, Camarillo, California, USA, 2014


Rebar at the Tool Room, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California, USA, 2014


Tabula Rasa, 643 Project Space, Ventura, US (catalog), 2013


60 @ 60, 60 paintings at 60 years, Ventura, California, USA, 2012


Markings I, Markings II, [two shows], B Street Project Space, Oxnard, California, USA, 2011

 

Signs of a Lost Civilization, Vita Arts Center, Bell Arts Factory, Ventura, California, USA, 2011


Viva la Vida, Laurel Ventura Gallery, Ventura, California, USA, 2009


Quantum Dynamics of Painting, UCSB Faculty Club, Santa Barbara, California, USA (catalog), 2008


Solo exhibitions, Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008


Solo exhibition in three venues, Santa Barbara Visitors Bureau and Film Commission, California, USA, 2003


Solo exhibitions, UCSB Faculty Club, Santa Barbara, California, USA 2001, 2003


Solo Exhibitions, Delphine Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2000, 2001, 2002 (2), 2003


Thirty Drawings, Mazey Hickey Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1987


Figure: Narrative, Whatcom County Museum, Bellingham, Washington, USA, 1986


Solo exhibitions, Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1983, 1984, 1985


Testament, Cornish Institute for Allied Arts, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984


Face to Face, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984


I Dream the Shattering Price of Wisdom, The Warehouse Paintings, Ace Studios, Seattle, Washington, USA 1983


Drawing, and/or alternative space, Seatlle, Washington, USA 1981


Wall Drawing, and/or alternative space, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1979


Facing Death, Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington, USA, 1979


Alexander Sasanoff, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1975, 1977



Selected Collective Shows


Butler Institute for American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, USA, 2018


From the Collection, Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, California, USA, 2017


Objects of Impossibility: Contemporary Abstraction, Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2017


Epiphany, Two-person show: Erik ReeL and Diane Silver, Porch Gallery, Ojai, California, USA, 2017


Art For Living, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art [CICA Museum], Seoul [Gyonggi], South Korea, 2017


For the Earth: Art for Ecology, Postmodern, Washington, DC, US (catalog), 2016


Out of the Great Wide Open, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2015


Retablos For Peace, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California, USA, 2015


Standing in Boots, two-person show with Nash Rightmer, WAV [Working Artists Ventura], California, USA, 2014


Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2013, 2014


Art For Peace, Vita Art Center,  Bell Arts Center, Ventura, California, USA, 2013


SCIART, Camarillo, California, USA, 2012, 2013


Print Electronico, international computer-generated art show, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2010


Epocha Nueva, Casa Del Mexicano, Santa Paula, California, USA, 2010


Turbulence, two-person show with Vonder Gray, Galerie 251, Ventura, USA, 2009


Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, USA, 2009, 2014


California State University, Channel Islands, Invitational, curated by Jack Reilly, California, USA, 2009


I-5 Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2008


Ventura County Arts Commission Show, curated by Paul Benavidas, Ventura, California, USA, 2008


Erik ReeL and Friends at the Love House, Love House, Ventura, California, USA, 2008


Best of Ventura County, Ventura County Arts Commission, Ventura, California, USA, 2008, 2009


Earth and Sky, Galerie 251, Ventura, California, USA, 2008


The Gay Pride Show, Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2006, 2007, 2008


Rainbow Alliance Show, LGBT Support Network Rainbow Alliance, Architexture, Ventura, California, USA, 2007


Picasso, Chagall, and Contemporary Master Prints, Modern Masters Gallery, Palm Desert, California, USA, 2006


71st SAGA Annual Print Show, Society of American Graphic Artists, New York, USA (catalog), 2004


17th Parkside National Print Exhibition, University of Wisconsin, USA (catalog), 2004


Works on Paper, curated by Matthew Pruit, Menil Sr Curator, McNeese State University, Louisiana, USA, 2004


Montpelier Center for the Arts, Montpelier, Virginia, USA, 2004


24th National Print Exhibition, ArtLink Contemporary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, 2004


Las Vegas Center for Art and Design, Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA, 2004


Landscape Unlimited, Non-conventional takes on the American landscape, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2004


Caruso Woods Gallery, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2004


Penumbral/Palindrome, scrim and set for collaborative performance, part of Signal+Noise event, MAT (Media Arts & Technology) program, at CREATE (Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology), UCSB, USA, 2003


Elizabeth Edwards Gallery, Palm Desert, California, USA, 2003, 2005, 2006


Linda Moore Gallery, San Diego, California, USA, 2003


Lisa Kurts Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, 2002, 2003


Contemporary Art Forum, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2000, 2001, 2002


Artists for World Peace, Pavilion for World Peace, Kobe, Japan, 2000


Artists for World Peace, Karpeles Museum and Manuscript Library, Santa Barbara, California, USA, 2000


New York, LA, Seattle, Center on Contemporary Art [COCA], traveling, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, 1985


City of Seattle Collects, curated by Howard Fox of LACMA, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, 1984


East: West Dialogue, curated by Gene Barto of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1984


Gallery Artists, Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984, 1985


Silver Birds, performance with Sue Ann Harkey, Seattle Art Museum Pavilion, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984


Night Mind, performance with Sue Ann Harkey, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984


A Reading After Robbe-Grillet, performance, Featured Reader, Poetry Seattle, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984


Burning Angels, performance with dancers at the the Virginia Street Studio, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984


Krakatoa Kriterion, curated by Erik ReeL, Jackson Street Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1984


Gallery Artists, Jackson Street Gallery at 123 Jackson Street, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1983


Chihuly et al., Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1980


Eight Seattle Artists, William Traver Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1979


Kodak International, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA, 1979


6500 x 20, International Invitational for work created on Xerox 6500 color copier, and/or, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1978


Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington, USA, 1978


International Flux Fest, curated by George Maciunas, and/or alternative space, Seattle, Washington, USA, 1977


National Drawing Show, curated by Wayne Thiebaud, Del Mar Museum, Corpus Christie, Texas, USA, 1976



Collections


Represented in private collections based in Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires,  Chicago, Dubai, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Houston, Indianapolis, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Paris, San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Barbara,  Santa Fe [NM], Seattle, and Seoul. Public collections include the permanent collections of Morris Graves Museum of Art, Seattle City Light, City of Seattle, Czong Institute of Contemporary Art, Museum of Ventura County, Whitman College.



Selected titled lectures, panels, and symposia


Neither Supernatural Nor Mechanical, Artists Talk/interview, Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington, 2021.

Full Circle: NW School, with Jae Carlsson, Morris Graves Museum of Art, panel performance, 2016

From Fluxus to Rebar, Artists Talk, Museum of Ventura County, Ventura, California, 2014.

Public lecture in conjunction with solo exhibition at Whatcom County Museum, Bellingham, Washington, 1986.

Panel on Contemporary Painting, Whatcom County Museum, Bellingham, Washington, 1986.

Symposium on Visual Art and Media: Politics and Critique. Seattle Media Library, 1985.

Critics Symposium on Painting, Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington, 1985.

Titian to Clemente: Transformations in the Painterly Tradition in Italy, Cornish Institute of the Arts, 1984.

The Rebirth of Painting. Public lecture, Seattle Art Museum, 1984.

Dialectics of Transavantguardism: Wolfgang Max Faust vs. Germano Celant, Seattle Public Library, 1984.

The Berlin Wall, Urban Graffiti, and the New Painting, Seattle Pacific University, 1984.

Sources in My Work, public lecture, Cornish Institute for the Arts, Seattle, 1984.

Painting Today, Public lecture, Cornish Institute for the Arts, Seattle, 1984.

Painterly Painting, Again, Public lecture, Seattle Art Museum, 1984.

Late Painting: Picasso, Matisse, de Chirico, Chagall, et alia, Public lecture, Seattle Art Museum, 1983.

Late de Chirico and the Next Generation: Clemente, Palladino, Cucci, Public lecture, Seattle Central College, 1983.

Teaching Color Theory: Preparing for a Digital World,  Lecture series, Seattle Public Library, 1983.

Teaching Color Theory: Preparing for a Digital World, Lectures, Seattle Central  College, 1983.

Color Theory: The Bauhaus Tradition Today: Itten, Klee, Albers, Dahn, ReeL, lecture, Seattle Central  College, 1982.

Color Theory: Gerrittsen Schema, Visual Constancies, Color Effect, and Painting, Seattle Central College, 1981.

An Objective Criterion for Temperature Contrast: Itten was Wrong, Seattle Central College Auditorium, 1981.

Fluxus Flumoxed, Lecture commemorating George Maciunas, Fluxus founder, Seattle Masonic Hall, 1980.

Color Theory: Preparing Visual Artists for the Computer Age. Seattle Public Library, 1980.

Color Theory Today: Why Classical Mixing Theories Do Not Work, Seattle Public Library, 1980.

Color Theory: Gerrittsen Schema, Transmission Curves, and Digital Representations, Seattle Central College, 1980.

Color Theory: A Comprehensive Conceptual Scheme for Artists and Designers, Seattle Public Library, 1980.

Visual Constancies in the Teaching of Color Theory to Artists and Designers, Seattle Central College, 1980.

Edwin Land and Impacts on Color Theory: What Artists Need to Know, Seattle Central  College, 1980.

Cafe Apocalypse: Performance Art Today, Evergreen State College, 1979.

Performance Art Today: Sources and Contexts, Public lecture, Washington Hall, Seattle, 1979.


Plus more informal talks on art of Erik ReeL at schools, universities, and arts institutions.


See also Bibliography and Bio.