“Jessi Reaves: Kitchen Arrangement” exhibit at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield beginning May 20 will run through Jan. 13. The exhibition will feature sculptural works such as seating, cabinetry, appliances and lighting ”” an object-based experience that is an expression of the home”™s primal epicenter: a social space essential to living and an area full of relational potentiality. Arguably the most experiential site in the house, the kitchen has also evolved into a particularly feminine space.
Reaves”™s sculptures impersonate and inhabit functional design objects as she imaginatively remasters existing furniture or composes her own to underscore an inherent performativity. Reaves liberates her materials from their highly polished veneers. She dissects, appends, or veils her anthropomorphized forms in order to reveal inimitable additive and reductive processes, such as curious decorative flourishes made with a distinctive blend of wood glue and sawdust or wearable fabrics (nylons and silks) that render her eccentric craftsmanship perceptible.
Reaves”™ work has been included in group exhibitions nationally and internationally; in 2017 her work was included in the Whitney Biennial. She lives and works in New York City.
