Jessi Reaves: All possessive lusts dispelled

“I don’t want someone to have to tell you to sit, because it’s more about the encounter with the thing—wondering if you can sit. There’s a certain person who’s willing to test that boundary”. —Jessi Reaves

Jessi Reaves combines iconic modernist design with an irreverent aesthetic in sculpture that toys with functionality. Reaves often begins with found furniture, which she dismantles, converts, remakes, enhances, pads, and embellishes in ways that still allow the suggestion of physical contact or use. By breaking things open, she proposes that they be examined visually and in terms of their purpose in life. The exhibition at The Arts Club of Chicago centers on the work Personal Heat, 2021, a deconstructed shelf/credenza with accompanying video that explores themes of renovation and rebellion. The sculptural aspect features a pop-punk aesthetic of hot pink animal stripes, as if Reaves had been locked in a room in her great aunt’s house with a can of paint, a saw, and some wood glue. The funk and humor of this work and of Reeves’s other sculptures and wall reliefs belie a mastery of complex composition, color, and the ability to integrate disparate materials. Reaves brings to her seemingly off-handed works a range of manual skills that she uses to both humorous and unsettling effect. Jessi Reaves: all possessive lusts dispelled offers a sensuous installation of works that allow the abject to infiltrate the ontology of the object.

Jessi Reaves (b. 1986, Portland, Oregon) earned her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, in 2009. Reaves’s solo exhibitions include Going Out in Style, Herald St, London (2019); Jessi Reaves II, Bridget Donahue, New York (2019); Kitchen Arrangement, a site-specific commission for The Domestic Plane: New Perspectives on Tabletop Art Objects, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut (2018); android stroll, Herald St, London (2017); Jessi Reaves, Bridget Donahue, New York (2016); and Now Showing: Jessi Reaves, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York (2016). Recent group exhibitions include Slant Step Forward, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento, California (2019); Carnegie International, 57th Edition, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2018); Ginny Casey and Jessi Reaves, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2017); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); and Looking Back, the eleventh White Columns Annual, White Columns, New York (2017), among others.

Evening public program
Wednesday, April 12, 6pm
Artists Jessi Reaves and Diane Simpson in conversation with art historian Kate Nesin

In-person program with option to view remotely via Zoom.

An intergenerational panel of art makers and thinkers come together to speak about process and materials. Art historian Kate Nesin moderates a conversation between artists Diane Simpson and Jessi Reaves (whose exhibition is currently on view at The Arts Club), both of whom incorporate furniture and design sources into their sculptural practices, exploring functionality, inherent formalism, and cultural reference. 

Free and open to all. Registration required.