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 Gallery, Whitman 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.