Brain Spot. 2009, 96"x72"

Drama Queen. 2009, 96"x72"

May 15th through June 22nd, 2009
Reception: Friday, May 15th, 7-9 pm
Gallery hours: Thrs – Mon 12-6 pm

Skype Performances: Sundays, May 24th, May 31st, June 7th, and June 14th, all 12 to 6PM

Momenta Art is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Hunter Reynolds, his first solo exhibition in New York in five years. Since 2001 Reynolds has experienced a series of life-altering events: 9/11, substance abuse, surviving AIDS, Hurricane Wilma, a close friend's suicide, the collapse of his immune system, and four HIV-related strokes that left his right hand partially paralyzed. These events are the raw material out of which this exhibition was born. Viewers who enter the gallery will be surrounded by a series of large-format works called "photo-weavings" formed by physically sewing together hundreds of smaller photographs. Though stunningly beautiful, the photographs that make up these pieces document a cathartic meltdown during which Reynolds, together with Hurricane Wilma, destroyed his Florida studio in the fall of 2005.

The documented wreckage includes Reynolds' own paint-splattered and water-damaged work from earlier series, artwork by other artists, CD covers, paper fragments, and shards of broken glass that were thrown and bonded by the forces of wind and rain. Bits of this detritus will be on view in the gallery along with the photo weavings. In addition, Reynolds will present several remote story-telling/conversation performances via Skype and a mini-documentary covering the hurricane and Reynolds' salvage efforts in his studio, efforts that transform the wreckage and personal history into testaments of survival. All of these elements come together in a complete context; but even as they encompass, they break free. For almost thirty years, Reynolds' work has engaged with gender identity, body politics, and personal histories. But it is the broad generosity of his work, and this installation in particular, that reveals the artist's particular strength at forging hope and beauty out of the sometimes dark totality of life.


"Art has always been one of the tools I have used to heal myself and others and to find order in the chaos of my life, by not only telling the story through art, but by transforming myself in the process of making it, using it to rebuild my life, finding hope and beauty and a desire to be alive."

Hunter Reynolds

exhibition essay by critic G. Roger Denson


Music Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1-kgeGgRBU


Hunter Reynolds has exhibited his work at museums and galleries widely in the US and abroad. He recently exhibited at Artists Space, NY; Mary Goldman Gallery, LA; and at Gavlak in West Palm Beach FL. He has been the recipient of many grants residencies including a Pollock Krasner Grant this year. As an AIDS activist, he was an early member of ACTUP and in 1989 co-founded Art Positive, an affinity group of ACT-UP, to fight homophobia and censorship in the arts.

http://hunterwreynolds.com


Streaming video performance consulting by Wayne Ashley and Dan Winckler.

Music Video edited by George Lyter with orginal song Neurobotic by Mike Alike.

Special thanks to Justin Gooding.



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Momenta Art is supported by the Harriet Ames Charitable Trust, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, The Greenwall Foundation, Greenwich Collection, Ltd., The Jerome Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and individual contributors.