Derek Reese is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Pittsburgh, PA since 2011. A Morgantown, West Virginia native, Reese received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from West Virginia University, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Ohio State University. His art practice in the last decade has transformed from primarily 2D artworks to that of sculpture, assemblage, and installations using a variety of media including found objects, household materials, photography, and video – all informed by his upbringing in a small coal mining town in West Virginia.

Reese has been selected as the U.S. representative for the SACO Contemporary Art Biennale, held annually in Antofagasta, Chile, and will be the ISLA Center for Art artist-in-residence in Antofagasta, Chile in June of 2021. His most recent exhibitions include Rolling Coal, a collection of new work at the Beauty Shoppe in Pittsburgh, PA; Six Feet, a group exhibition at Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA); and Lost in the Flood, a group exhibition at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Indiana, PA.

Derek Reese creates sculpture, assemblage, flat works, and installations using objects, materials, photography, and video in a way that is informed by his upbringing in a former coal-camp turned "holler" community in West Virginia. With plenty of absurdity and irony, his aim is to examine and subvert the hierarchical value of objects and materials in order to create a cache of visual vocabulary with which he can use to better describe and understand the impact of Place on an artist's psyche. Through a process of breaking down and re-building imagery, objects, and materials, more subtle yet insidious threads are revealed in his work: topics such environmentalism, toxic masculinity, white supremacy, and poverty. Derek seeks to make art that, like life, can feel at once beautiful and precarious.

www.derekreese.com
www.instagram.com/derek_reese_art

Upcoming project: Reese has been selected as the U.S. representative for the SACO Contemporary Art Biennale, held annually in Antofagasta, Chile, and will be the ISLA Center for Art Residencies artist-in-residence in Antofagasta, Chile in 2021.