Megan Reed is an artist based in Los Angeles whose work focuses on anthropomorphic, large-scale sculptures and paintings (~9-10 feet tall), which, installed together in groups, become both player and prop, instigator and evidence. In these works, she is building a body from—taking Levi-Strauss’ concept of bricolage—the use of disparate and often everyday materials as a way of creating new mythologies with the remnants of the old; means to tell new stories with the tools of the dominant paradigm (patriarchal, capitalist). Color is a performative text of these works, transforming them into highly verbal occupants that pay homage to subversive architectures resisting homogenization. Similar to monumental installations like Stonehenge, these sculptures, when installed, act as performances: space-creators, theatrical players, energetic presences that activate social spaces, becoming mirrors of and instigators to the cultural conversation—Reed's definition of what both the art object and theater can do. As a woman artist, this feels urgent, political, and powerful.
Reed holds an MFA in painting from California College of the Arts, San Francisco, an MA in dramatic literature from Southern Illinois University and a BFA in drama from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. She has presented solo and two-person shows at Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY, Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, CA, Quality Gallery, Oakland, CA, Unit 24 Gallery, London, UK, Johansson Projects, Oakland, CA; multi-media performances at Land and Sea, Oakland, CA, and Hausq, Tucson, AZ; as well as in numerous group shows, including: Massimo de Carlo, Milan, The Pit, Los Angeles, Shrine, Los Angeles, Harper’s, Los Angeles, Guerrero Gallery, The San Francisco Arts Commission, Victori + Mo Gallery and most recently, in Color Fields at the Long Beach Museum of Art in Long Beach, CA. She has been an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has been profiled in La Repubblica, Vogue, the San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, and New American Paintings. Her work is in the permanent collections of Meta (Facebook) and The Bunker Artspace in West Palm Beach, Florida.
