Reena Spaulings
Biography
In 2004, the New York-based artist Reena Spaulings emerged from the daily operation of an art gallery (Reena Spaulings Fine Art, founded by John Kelsey & Emily Sundblad) on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Often playing on the double-identity of art dealer and artist, Spaulings’ work undermines professional divisions of labor and disciplinary hierarchies, while interrogating accepted notions of individual authorship and agency. For their first solo show The One & Only, 2005, Reena Spaulings presented a series of hybrid painting / sculptures in the form of wall-mounted flags. Using the kind of readymade flagpoles commonly seen on suburban American house fronts and small New York business-fronts, this gesture could be read as more of an occupation than an installation, claiming a territory in another dealer’s Chelsea gallery in order to problematize the protocols by which dealers “represent” artists and their work.Reena Spaulings have also produced publications, performances and underground dance music.
Recently they've had several solo exhibitions: in 2020 Life at Sea at Galerie Neu in Berlin;in 2019 Lion Hunt at Campoli Presti in London, in 2018 The Male Gates at Matthew Marks Gallery in Los Angeles ,in 2017 HER AND NO at Museum Ludwig in Cologne,in 2016 Pont du Carrousel at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris, in 2015 Later Seascapes at Galerie Neu in Berlin , in 2014 Later Seascapes at Campoli Presti in London , in 2013 Reena Spaulings at Galerie Neu in Berlin and in 2012 at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris.
Their work was featured in several group exhibitions including Tous les jours, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris (2023);GIFT SHOP, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris (2020);THE ARTIST IS PRESENT, curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2018); READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, Swiss Institute Architecture and Design Series: 3rd Edition, New York (2018); Infected Foot, Greene Naftali, New York (2017); La Collection Thea Westreich Wagner et Ethan Wagner, Centre George Pompidou, Paris, FR Group Exhibition, Campoli Presti, Paris (2016)
