Reed Anderson at Pierogi

 Reed Anderson, Looking Good Lady, 2014, Acrylic and collage on cut paper,
40.5 x 38.75 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson at Pierogi

By PAUL LASTER APR. 2014

A playful purveyor of works on paper, Reed Anderson prints, paints, and cuts his way through paper like a karate champ punching holes through modern masters’ canvases. For his fourth solo exhibition at Pierogi, Anderson presents paintings on paper from two recent pursuits: the continuation of his colorful cut paper paintings and spinoffs from his series Papa Object, which placed Anderson’s photo-based, painted pieces with temporary collectors around the world. Whitehot contributor Paul Laster recently caught up with the Brooklyn-based artist for an extended Facebook chat to discuss his process, love of paper, and freethinking ways.

Paul Laster: What is it about paper that fascinates you so much to use it as your primary ground?

Reed Anderson: I came to paper through printmaking . . . and while lousy at making editions I was totally taken up with the working proofs in the studio . . . the cut-up collaged and smudged dialogue of correction was something that I embraced. The ephemeral quality of paper shows it's wear and age in a way that is akin to the body: the folds, patches, and stains of time marks the path of our actions.

Laster: What's the process for the cut paper pieces? Do you paint, collage, and then cut out the circular and ovular shapes?

Anderson: To try to describe this is like dancing with no answers . . . every time things are a little different . . . searching for new elements to introduce into the studio. In the studio I have some things that I have an idea about, but nothing I make is going to actually be this idea, so it's a question of working the idea. It's true that there are sets of processes that I like, that I go to out of appetite . . . but between each of these steps it is important to break free from certain habits that just create finished work . . . massaging the fly into the ointment.

Because of this, a breakdown is pretty much impossible. As for what is going on in my mind . . . I have an idea, like I said, but I've always been more of a gut person . . . when new things start to come together it's a question of trusting the anxiety that this produces and continuing to work. Work begets work . . . for me most of the thinking happens before and after.

I try to stop before anything is too finished . . . something incomplete is more sexy, and more open to receive us as viewers. When something is worked to a compulsive finish there is always a whiff of decor that for me leaves my emotional response cold.

Laster: What's your attraction to printmaking techniques, such as silkscreen and wood block printing, that you regularly use in the process of constructing your works?

Anderson: While I was schooled as a printmaker, it isn't the technique that I am interested in, since that would imply some adept professionalism towards the craft of printmaking. It's exactly the lack of this adeptness and clarity that I enjoy . . . This ham-fisted approach lends itself nicely to the mistakes and blunders that are an important part of my work at the moment.

Reed Anderson, Fortune House, 2013, Acrylic and collage on cut paper,
72 x 66 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Laster: You seem to be drawn to a vibrant palette. What does color represent to you?

Anderson: A bodega rainbow . . . I have always been attracted to the full spectrum of flavors there... many of the object paintings have roots in a more graphic sensibility, a kind of poster feeling, so naturally I am influenced by this genre. But when I texted "bodega rainbow" from my phone to you, I was also referring to the environment of New York . . . the entirety of colors that surround us.

Laster: You sometimes work in black-and-white, as in the mask-like, cut paper paintings in your current show, which you have also created in the past. What are they about and why are they made in a gray scale?

Anderson: The faces are influenced by the Oceanic and African masks in the paintings. The more subtle tones of grays are really just a matter of a feeling . . . it's what I wanted for this series.

Laster: You refer to the object paintings. Are they part of the Papa Object series of paintings? If yes, what are they about?

Anderson: Papa Object was a series of paintings I made over the past few years about the liminal state of art and object . . . the paintings continue, but the name Papa Object is specific to a group that I mailed to locations around the globe as a kind of research experiment before deciding to show them publicly. This series engages with my own history of growing up with a household of art objects and their double-agent status as art and as personal, transitional objects.

Laster: There's a spiritual, Zen-like nature to your work. How does that relate to your philosophy and way of life?

Anderson: The way I see it is that artists and the Zen folks have this issue of emptiness that they both seem to be dealing with . . . and so I think the two are natural bedfellows, but being overly dogmatic carries its own set of problems . . . if anything, the older I get the more I want to be free of the rules . . . in general this attitude has made me more spontaneous and accepting of what happens in the studio which is exciting for me and I think this energy comes across in the work.

There is an attitude that is deeply embedded in my upbringing which comes from a belief in pictures . . . and so if anything, perhaps I am a believer in the old fashioned idea that art has the power of transformation . . . both in the seeing and doing.

Reed Anderson, Antartica / Papa Object, 2013,
Acrylic on photographic print, 52.5 x 40 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, Food Pyramid 1, 2013. Acrylic on photographic print,
48.5 x 40 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, Out of School, 2013, Acrylic and collage on cut paper,
72 x 66 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, The Happy Nudist, 2014, Graphite and oil on cut paper,
15.25 x 13.75 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, Reverse Sybil, 2013-2014, Acrylic and collage on cut paper,
77 x 72 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, Sun Ra, 2014, Acrylic on photographic print,
46 x 40 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, Pleasure Craft, 2013-2014, Acrylic and collage on cut paper,
40 x 42 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, Lionel Richie Hardcore, 2014, Acrylic on photographic print,
61.5 x 40 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson, Hudson Bay Bale, 2014. Acrylic on cut paper, Approx. 14 x 12.5 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn


Reed Anderson, Santiago, Chile / Papa Object, 2013. Acrylic on photographic print,
54 x 40 inches. Courtesy the artist and Pierogi, Brooklyn

Reed Anderson: The Way You Look Is the Way I Feel is on view at Pierogi in Brooklyn through April 27, 2014