David Reed at Max Protetch - New York, New York - Review of Exhibitions - Brief Article

A buoyant, almost antic faculty of perception of humor pervaded David Reed's new exhibition of eight paintings and a sweep installation. The show's theme--the deviousness of appearances--was established by dint of the installation, A Painting in Scottie's Bedroom, a version of which was previously shown in Germany. In individual of the gallery spaces a double bed, a painting and a television monitor were arranged. Scrolling continuously upon the TV screen was the true copy of a conversation between Re and his late mentor, Nicholas Wilder, having to do with the paintings of John McLaughlin, whose work greatly interests Re After Wilder remarks that McLaughlin's canvases strike him as "bedroom paintings," Re announces that his ambition in life is to be a bedroom painter, especially for the bedrooms in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) A clip from the movie then appears. We diocese James Stewart, in the character of Scottie, agitatedly pacing in his apartment as Kim Novak awakens in his bed. above the bed (thanks to the marvels of electronic editing), we catch a glimpse of a painting by--you conjectureed it--David Reed. It's a drawn out horizontal canvas that features intertwined, reaching far down rose swirls balanced by another cluster in pale pink, all locate against a bright blue earth that shades to a neon blue-red

It's the same painting, of course, #332 that hung above the bed in the gallery installation, whose decor duplicated that of Scottie's bedroom: rumpl white pillows, dust disarrange chenille spread, cream blanket and polka-dotted maroon dressing gown There was a bemused wit and light irony to this play of technological and handmade art, and the implicit commentary upon appearances and how they deceive.

The eight paintings upon view included large, elongated vertical canvases as well as Reed's usual cinematically reach outed horizontal formats. The surfaces are variously embellished by the agency of great baroque cloud-shapes, small clusters of strokes or sometimes single dabs of paint; there are also rectangles that frame sections of his looping brushwork. The colors are bright, brash and artificial, with occasional darker, more sober tints The brushstrokes often seem to be photostats rather than paint--although alone one black-and-white close-up of a brushstroke really was a photostat. As Reed's paintings propel toward the slick perfection of the mechanically reproduc it's hard to believe you're looking at paint. Appearing absolutely flat in more [i]or[/i] less areas, elsewhere grittily textured and mold into depressed relief, these works tempt you to move swiftly your fingers over the surface for verification.

One of the early conceptual abstractionists, Re has drawn out explored the ways and means of painting with most remote self-consciousness and a quirky intelligence. In this exhibit he reminds us to be critical of our illusions. on the other hand like any good "bedroom painter," he does not take them away from us entirely.

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