Shelley Reed

Shelley Reed was born in New York City in 1958 and currently lives and works in Boston, MA. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Brandeis University, and graduated from School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1984. She has shown nationally in both galleries and museums such as Danese/Corey in New York City; Fitchburg Art Museum, MA; Columbia Museum of Art, SC; and Sears-Peyton Gallery, New York City. Furthermore, Reed’s works are in several public and private collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Art Institute of Chicago; Fidelity Investment Corporation, Boston; and National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY. She is the recipient of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Travelling Fellowship in 2013, and Maud Morgan Award from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 2005.

PROCESS

Reed’s work is guided by art history as she starts her process by doing extensive art historical research. She draws her subjects from paintings of the past, bringing small details of these paintings into focus by making them her subjects. Reed picks similar details from a variety of artists that worked in the same period, building a dialogue that shows how painters referenced each other, and how certain fragments of art history shape our contemporary understanding of art.Drawing on selected historic works, Reed states that these forebearers continue to be relevant today, while celebrating the arts lineage of which she is a part. Though trained as a colorist, Reed chooses to work in black and white.

RESIDENCY

Through a large oil painting on a paper grid Reed will allow the viewer to step into the creation of her black and white world, to exist among its painted inhabitants. She will use art historical imagery that is sometimes pastoral and at times aggressive, creating an environment that feels “vaguely familiar, a bit dangerous, and fully relevant to today.”