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 such as Keep On Truckin’ at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris (2024); Life at Sea at Galerie Neu in Berlin (2020) ;Lion Hunt at Campoli Presti in London (2019); The Male Gates at Matthew Marks Gallery in Los Angeles (2018); HER AND NO at Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2017); Pont du Carrousel at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris (2016); Later Seascapes at Galerie Neu in Berlin (2015); Later Seascapes at Campoli Presti in London (2014); Reena Spaulings at Galerie Neu in Berlin (2013); at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris(2012).
Their work was featured in several group exhibitions including Machine Painting at Modern Art in London (2024); Tous les jours, Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris (2023); GIFT SHOP at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris (2020);THE ARTIST IS PRESENT, curated by Maurizio Cattelan at Yuz Museum in Shanghai (2018); READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE at the Swiss Institute of Architecture and Design Series: 3rd Edition in New York (2018); Infected Foot at Greene Naftali in New York (2017); La Collection Thea Westreich Wagner et Ethan Wagner at Centre George Pompidou in Paris (2016) ; Group Exhibition at Campoli Presti in Paris (2016).
