Exhibitions

VEDA REED: NEW WORKS

David Lusk Gallery Memphis / 97 Tillman St. January 1 - February 10th

Veda Reed

David Lusk Gallery is pleased to present new paintings by Veda Reed to celebrate the artist's 90th birthday, January 5th. This captivating exploration of the artist's career is a combination of studies as well as large-scale paintings created by Reed in the previous year.

Reed is revered for her long career of creating sublime, luminous, large-scale paintings of skies, cloudscapes, and the cycles of the sun and moon. Inspired by her childhood in the wide-open spaces of Oklahoma, her works represent moments of warmth and comfort experienced while witnessing nature. Working in isolation and silence, her studio practice reflects the flow of the atmospheres she depicts. She reduces images to their essential forms and then amplifies their presence through selective composition, brilliant palettes, and a painstaking process of layering pigment and glaze.Her incredibly smooth, seamless surfaces create perceptual effects ranging from a subtle, vibrating glow to pure radiance.

For Reed, the act of painting is a spiritual journey toward truth and beauty and a celebration of cycles of renewal. Reed's works transcend the canvas, capturing moments of warmth and comfort. These works highlight the simple yet profound staple aspects that can be observed throughout Veda’s career.

This milestone exhibition serves as a testament to Reed's artistic journey. Reed has been an integral part of the Memphis art scene since 1952, receiving acclaim for her contributions as a faculty member and dean at the Memphis College of Art. She received a BFA from the Memphis College of Art and studied at Siena College in Memphis and the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. During her long tenure as a faculty member, dean, and professor emerita at MCA Reed taught a legion of artists how to look, think and react.

Her work as an educator did not deter her from art making, and she has shown in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries across the U.S. over eight decades. In fact, when The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art mounted a retrospective exhibition of her work in 2017, and it marked her third solo exhibition at that institution. Her work hangs in many public collections, including The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Rhodes College, Memphis; Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville; State University of New York at Binghampton; The Tennessee State Museum, Nashville; Tucson Museum of Art; and newly at the Memphis International Airport. Among her many accolades and honors, in 1996 - in the middle of her long career - Reed received the prestigious Tennessee Governor’s Award in the Arts.Reed’s new works at David Lusk Gallery are an opportunity to celebrate the life and work of a pillar in the Memphis art scene.