Reyes Projects is pleased to present new work by New York-based artist Charles Andresen, and Detroit-based artist Chris Riddell, with two solo exhibitions opening Wednesday, June 7, 2017.
Charles Andresen and Chris Riddell are two quintessentially local American artists, legends in their own cities. Charles Andresen, who has spent twenty-five years working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, was trained in the realist tradition but now practices biomorphic abstraction. Chris Riddell is a Michigan born-and-bred artist, who is famous for mining the detritus of the city as the source for his work in collage and found objects.
Charles Andresen’s Detroit Red, on the upper level of the gallery, presents his highly tactile “throw paintings,” created by flinging viscous acrylic paint at stretched canvas. Their lush surfaces reveal a range of palettes from brilliant prismatic to somber nocturnes. Andresen views his method as a form of Surrealist Automatism, a way to discover the unforeseen. Swirls, dots, and arching lines act as dynamic guides for the eye through the dense materiality of his paintings.
Chris Riddell’s Lavender, on the lower level, is a group of punchy abstract drawings and paintings that hint and tease at underlying shapes and figurative explorations. Often bright and cheerfully colored, the emphasis is on the line and its unbridled movement and aggressive drawing. Representational elements battle with a tendency to double down on the possibilities that comes with harsh juxtaposition of color. These works are viscerally charged, and subconsciously sourced.
Charles Andresen (b. 1964, Arizona) lives and works in New York City where he is employed as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where he trained as a realist oil painter. Andresen was awarded a 2015 residency at the Elaine de Kooning House in Long Island. Recent shows include Christian Berst, New York; The Green Gallery, Milwaukee; Guided By Invoices Gallery, New York; Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Ferndale, Michigan; Derek Eller Gallery, New York; James Fuentes Gallery, New York; and Turner Byrne & Runyon, Dallas, Texas.
Chris Riddell (b. 1970, Michigan) works in Detroit, and lives in Hamtramck, Michigan. He received a BA and an MFA from Wayne State University. His work has been exhibited at The College for Creative Studies, Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead, Cave, Trinosophes, Public Pool, Popps Packing, and Design 99 in Detroit; and Interstate Projects in Brooklyn.
Reyes Projects is a contemporary art gallery in Birmingham, Michigan established by Terese Reyes in 2017. The gallery occupies a 4,600 square foot space in the newly-renovated landmark Wachler Jewelry building on Old Woodward Avenue. Reyes Projects will unveil five exhibitions a year dedicated to emerging and mid-career artists. It is with such presentations that the gallery seeks to reveal a profile both internationally renowned and regional in dialogue. Collaborating with local patrons and institutions alike, the gallery hopes to continue to diversify and strengthen Detroit’s burgeoning arts community.
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