
Home >About
EDDIE REED
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
I knew I wanted to be recognized as a professional artist when I won a local contest sponsored by my hometown radio station looking for a new logo. I was then in the sixth grade. About that same time my mother enrolled me in a local arts program for kids, the Living Arts Center. I received many compliments from my peers and teacher for my drawing skills. That was a big self-esteem boost. With a pencil I could faithfully reproduce anything. I was especially found of scientific illustrations, which I practiced copying from a set of encyclopedias. I found myself spending hours upon hours copying the illustrations in those books with my colored pencils. It was in those daily-drawing activities that I learned about perspective drawing and color theory via the color wheel overlays I discovered in those encyclopedias, and I became enthralled by the life stores of the famous artists and art history. Later, when I entered high school, my understanding of what art was, and could be, more than creating pretty pictures, I discovered that art could teach others about the world at large. That year, 1966, I was swept up in America’s civil rights movement and I discovered other black artist such as Charles White, Jacob Lawrence, and Sam Gilliam, and the impact black artists were having articulating the pride and the anguish of black America. I was now taking weekend art classes at our local museum, the Dayton Art Institute, in Dayton, Ohio. My instructors further exposed me to the prideful work of black folk artist of the Deep South. Because of those exposures and through the discipline of training my inner eye my own work began to shift away from creating art that replicated nature to creating art that would educate others on who I am and what it means to be me, a black man in America today. Over time I became attracted to the idea of being an artist activist. I did posters for local civil rights groups, participated in their rallies, and organized within my white majority high school, art focused happenings aimed at disrupting the common held and as I saw it, often flawed narrative on the black American experience. Heady stuff for a teenager but it was the 60’s and I was constantly being pushed by the events of the time to lend my art voice to expressing the frustrations of my neighbors and friends over the events of the time, the Vietnam war, the soaring oratory of Martin Luther King and later his assassination. Which brings me to the present. My present day work is meant to spark an ongoing conversation between human beings about the meaning of life. Conversations, I believe, need to be had. These conversations can lead to awareness, soul searching, and even empathy. This ultimately changes the skewed narrative that had been, and in my opinion, in some cases, continues to be propagated by our art institutions, intentionally or not, on what constitutes beauty, power and wealth, gender and racial superiority. My artist goal is to continue to add to the new narrative, a narrative that depicts a multi layered and complex storyline. A narrative that challenges preconceived attitudes tempered by the hope and power of sacred symbols employed as the light illuminating the pathway of a new focus on encouragement, hope, and resilience for those lesser known voices of a multicultural America.

Home >About
EDDIE REED
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
I knew I wanted to be recognized as a professional artist when I won a local contest sponsored by my hometown radio station looking for a new logo. I was then in the sixth grade. About that same time my mother enrolled me in a local arts program for kids, the Living Arts Center. I received many compliments from my peers and teacher for my drawing skills. That was a big self-esteem boost. With a pencil I could faithfully reproduce anything. I was especially found of scientific illustrations, which I practiced copying from a set of encyclopedias. I found myself spending hours upon hours copying the illustrations in those books with my colored pencils. It was in those daily-drawing activities that I learned about perspective drawing and color theory via the color wheel overlays I discovered in those encyclopedias, and I became enthralled by the life stores of the famous artists and art history. Later, when I entered high school, my understanding of what art was, and could be, more than creating pretty pictures, I discovered that art could teach others about the world at large. That year, 1966, I was swept up in America’s civil rights movement and I discovered other black artist such as Charles White, Jacob Lawrence, and Sam Gilliam, and the impact black artists were having articulating the pride and the anguish of black America. I was now taking weekend art classes at our local museum, the Dayton Art Institute, in Dayton, Ohio. My instructors further exposed me to the prideful work of black folk artist of the Deep South. Because of those exposures and through the discipline of training my inner eye my own work began to shift away from creating art that replicated nature to creating art that would educate others on who I am and what it means to be me, a black man in America today. Over time I became attracted to the idea of being an artist activist. I did posters for local civil rights groups, participated in their rallies, and organized within my white majority high school, art focused happenings aimed at disrupting the common held and as I saw it, often flawed narrative on the black American experience. Heady stuff for a teenager but it was the 60’s and I was constantly being pushed by the events of the time to lend my art voice to expressing the frustrations of my neighbors and friends over the events of the time, the Vietnam war, the soaring oratory of Martin Luther King and later his assassination. Which brings me to the present. My present day work is meant to spark an ongoing conversation between human beings about the meaning of life. Conversations, I believe, need to be had. These conversations can lead to awareness, soul searching, and even empathy. This ultimately changes the skewed narrative that had been, and in my opinion, in some cases, continues to be propagated by our art institutions, intentionally or not, on what constitutes beauty, power and wealth, gender and racial superiority. My artist goal is to continue to add to the new narrative, a narrative that depicts a multi layered and complex storyline. A narrative that challenges preconceived attitudes tempered by the hope and power of sacred symbols employed as the light illuminating the pathway of a new focus on encouragement, hope, and resilience for those lesser known voices of a multicultural America.
ARTIST RESUME
EXHIBITIONS
Current Shows
- Renaissance Unmasked “The Re-Birth of Black BrillianceCurrent until January 7Onyx Gallery PACIFIC PLACE CENTER, 600 Pine St. Seattle WAGallery Hours Thurs – Sunday, 12noon – 6pm
Upcoming Shows
“The Mission”
Show Opens January 6, 2022
Blackfish Gallery 420 NW 9th Ave Portland OR 97209
503 224.2634
Show Opens January 6, 2022
Blackfish Gallery 420 NW 9th Ave Portland OR 97209
503 224.2634
Solo Shows
- 1978 Plymouth State Gallery, Plymouth New Hampshire
- 1980 University of Maine, Machias Maine
- 1982 PACE Gallery, Portsmouth New Hampshire
- 1980 Saint Stephen’s Cultural Center, Saint Stevens New Brunswick
- 2020 Salishan Gallery, Gleneden Beach Oregon
Publications
- 1994 VISION NW ART
- 2018-19 Center on Contemporary Art
Group Shows
- 1993 Washington State Drawing Exhibition
- 2011-16 Group Show Greenlake Art Walk, Seattle WA
- 2016 Lincoln City cultural Center, Lincoln City OR
- 2018-19 Center on Contemporary Art
- 2022 Onyx Gallery, Seattle WA
Educational History
- University of Washington, Seattle, WA 2006 Doctorate of Education.
- UWashington 1980 Bachelor of Arts, Education
- University of Maine, Machias ME Publications VISION quarterly review of Northwest Contemporary Art, 1992
ARTIST STATEMENT
Symbolic representations in my art are appropriated from current media, and the spiritual anthology of indigenous spiritual symbol lore from around the world. Each element I combine together are intended to raise awareness, evoke hope and project determination in the face of the demeaning, human inflected experiences.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Symbolic representations in my art are appropriated from current media, and the spiritual anthology of indigenous spiritual symbol lore from around the world. Each element I combine together are intended to raise awareness, evoke hope and project determination in the face of the demeaning, human inflected experiences.