Portrait by Zach Baker

Jessi Reaves (b.1986, Portland, Oregon) earned her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI in 2009. Her practice centers on sculptures that also operate as furniture, rupturing traditional binaries of the functional and the aesthetic.

In 2021, Reaves work was featured in two iterations of the two person exhibition Wild Life: Elizabeth Murray & Jessi Reaves at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Texas and The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia.

Reaves’ solo exhibitions include At the well, Bridget Donahue, New York, NY (2022), Going out in Style, Herald St, London, United Kingdom (2019); Jessi Reaves II, Bridget Donahue, New York, NY (2019); Kitchen Arrangement within The Domestic Plane: New Perspectives on Tabletop Art Objects, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT (2018); android stroll, Herald St, London, United Kingdom (2017); Jessi Reaves, Bridget Donahue, New York, NY (2016); Now Showing: Jessi Reaves, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY

(2016). Recent group exhibitions include Slant Step Forward, Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento (2019); Carnegie International, 57th Edition, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, PA (2018); Ginny Casey and Jessi Reaves, Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia (2017); Whitney Biennial 2017, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2017); Looking Back/ The 11th White Columns Annual, White Columns, NY (2017) among others. She has a forthcoming solo exhibition at The Arts Club of Chicago in 2023.

Jessi Reaves — Installation View, “At the Well”, September - November 2022, Bridget Donahue, NYC Photo by Gregory Carideo

Jessi Reaves, A sample of the truth, 2022, Wood, metal, cord, sawdust, wood glue, paper, enamel paint, 44 ½ × 42 × 45 in. (113.03 × 106.68 × 114.30 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC Photo by Gregory Carideo

Jessi Reaves Warming Rails Extended (Towel Rack), 2022, Metal, hardware, sawdust, wood glue, 58 ½ × 27 × 27 in. (148.59 × 68.58 × 68.58 cm) Courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, NYC Photo by Gregory Carideo