KIT REUTHER | Heads & Clouds

Kit Reuther

HEADS & CLOUDS

With a rich color palette and Kit Reuther’s anthropomorphic, organic sculptures, HEADS & CLOUDS focuses on juxtapositions of soft color with heavier, saturated shapes are brought out of the canvas with layering and a manipulation of negative space. Reuther's ever-evolving practice includes painting, sculpture and engineering as she studies innovative art historical eras and landmark interior design styles and trends.

Your sculptures balance abstraction and organic shapes and a number of different materials - thinking about your concrete pieces specifically.

Can you speak to your process of planning and executing a sculpture?

Do your paper collages or paintings inform any part of that process?

Planning a sculpture usually starts with a general idea of form: monolithic, totemic, head shape, etc. I build it out in wire and styrofoam, before applying a hard exterior material. From there it is either finished out, or prepped for bronze casting. My 3d work has always been informed by what I’m doing in 2-d, and vice-versa. It all runs together.

Minimalism grounds Reuther’s works, yet they possess an energy brought out in colorful and textured gestures. Earlier wooden sculptures of heads serve as a jumping off point for Reuther’s new bronze sculptures. Placed on marble pedestals, these textured works mirror round elements in her paintings, creating dialog between her two practices.

OTHERWORLD, at DLG Memphis last October, showed us a return to realism and earlier moments in your career. One sculpture reminded me of an elephant and you had an alligator in a painting! What made you want to re-explore this side of your work?

It’s true, I’ve been delving into representation in some of my latest work, and I’m continuing that direction in the current show titled HEADS & CLOUDS. I don’t foresee ever doing straight realism, but it’s been interesting to cross back over self-imposed boundaries, armed with whatever skills I’ve picked up along the way.

In HEADS & CLOUDS, Reuther tightly packs canvases with textured rich greens, bright yellows, and inviting blues that push the works beyond their physical borders. Her signature rough brushstrokes cover entire surfaces underneath geometric, outlined shapes. Reuther creates architecturally abstract paintings with representation forms.

You have a background in design and your work reflects elements of Cy Twombly, Ida Kohlmeyer, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. How do design and design history inform your sculptures and paintings? Are there specific artists you return to when you start a new painting or series?

I’ve been looking at certain early and mid 20th century art movements such as fauvism or the COBRA artists. In particular, work that exhibits tremendous freedom and courage. I’m forever chasing the spontaneous mark or the odd composition that energizes a painting. Another current interest is pattern: scandinavian textiles, Marimekko, and all things Alexander Gerard. Very graphic and pop. The images of my 1960’s childhood.

You have such a strong sense of color that is always balanced with very neutral, textural elements. There is always a lot to consider in your work, and sometimes I think you use non-color colors: lavender or maroon or chartreuse, in addition to black and cream. Are these choices intuitive and made as you work on a piece, or are they planned and fully considered before you begin a collage or painting?

I learn something new about color every time I do a painting. Maybe it’s all an intuitive process at this stage of my life, but when I’m scribbling and piling on layers of paint with a successful outcome, I can’t help but acknowledge a certain amount of dumb luck!

Kit Reuther is a graduate of Nashville’s O’More School of Design. She has been awarded artist fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and participated in the VCCA International Residency Program in Germany, as well as the Contemporary Artists Center Residency in Massachusetts.

EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

❏ Toy Clouds, oil, graphite on canvas, 60x60, 2023

❏ Peonies After Dark, oil on canvas, 60x60, 2023

❏ Saffron, oil on canvas, 60x60, 2023

❏ #1645-3d, bronze, 28x12x11, 2023

❏ #1646-3d, bronze, 31x12x12, 2023

❏ Lawn Games, oil on canvas, 60x60, 2023

❏ Seven Lakes and a Snake, oil on canvas, 60x60, 2023

❏ Bird, oil on canvas, 60x60, 2023

❏ #1647-3d, bronze, 40x15x14, 2023

❏ #1648-3d, bronze, 34x10x10, 2023