Mission & Biography
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My portraits are not of divinities, nor are they used for worship services. This new work is about someone on whom the affections are strongly or often excessively set; a person greatly loved or adored. The majority of the collection is of dark-skinned people because of my personal affiliation. For reasons of the inaccurate depictions in film, news, and music, I consider my responsibility towards my brothers to be uplifting, informative, and suggesting reconsideration of our struggles to survive and flourish.
Attending the Art Institute of Chicago in a post-Bachalaureate film program, I was inundated with all types of artists: sculptors, filmmakers, painters, photographers, etc. Seeing that my film program was largely occupied by white South Africans along the same time as apartheid, I gravitated towards the painters, noticing that they had more parties and social functions. I can remember one party where a funny little man, T. J. Darwin, had the most exquisite true-to-life portraits from the World War II conflict: Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hirohito, Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler. Everybody at the party loved his work except for the Hitler portrait. They informed him that he shouldn't have done that one and an uproar ensued over this Hitler piece. I realized then the power of a painting. |
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At the age of three when my mother told me that my baby-sitter had died, I didn't understand. She assured me that I would see her again in heaven, and so I searched for heaven. I've read the Bible five times and have become a follower of God.
Through the years, my film making, photography, writing, and painting have been God-conscience apocalyptic pronouncements in particular. My apocalyptic paintings depict a nude figure, weapon in hand, lunging towards the viewer accompanied with a machine of war. Showing these nudes on the streets of New York after the towers fell, I was able to secure some points in Manhattan by which to show wherein I wouldn't be forced away. After coming back to Chicago and displaying the five by seven feet nude paintings in the windows of the flat iron building, I had to find a First Amendment lawyer due to the commotion it caused. Though I was able to show my work, I wasn't able to sell my horrific views of the coming end, and so I changed my emphasis from the end to the present. |
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My present day idols, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, Halle Barry, Bill Gates, Bono, Barack Obama, Spike Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Shroud of Turin, Harold Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., Che Guevara, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, Haile Selassie, Michael Jordan, Father Michael Pfleger, the Mona Lisa, Michelle Obama, Thurgood Marshall, Michael Jackson, Pope John Paul II, Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Princess Diana are all people I admire for their rise to the top and fortification of the bottom.
These idols make it their just cause to use their celebrity influence and money to alchemize the injustice, poverty, and ignorance of the world. These painted images are not only for the masses, but also for me. They are a reminder of the greatness of humanity, throughout time and history that I personally strive for. I want people to look at this series and take on that strive for greatness themselves. – JEFFERY REID |
It was 50 years ago today.
"At the age of five I open my first outdoor business, Lemonade stand. As I got older, my family informed me I was too old to have a lemonade stand.
Every day it was sunny and nice, and the people were out, I had to refused the urges to mix up a batch of freshly squeezed lemonade, filtered water, with a little sugar. I love my lemonade stand. Not that I was making so much money but I was meeting the neighbors in the neighborhood, honestly respectfully and helpfully hosting humanity. 50 years later, I'm forced to happily open up my new idolportraits.com Street Stan, Equipped with a vendors license, brought by The Black Veterans administration For Social Justice. I'm back on the streets, meeting the neighbors. With the Largest New York City Street Stand Art Gallery, One Man Show. Showing, the Sweetest Lemons Around. I can taste It, Come and Taste the, Sweetest Sugar Lemon Water In The World." – Jeffery Reid |
Jeffery Reid in the June/July 2016 Hudson Guild Gallery Show.
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E X P E R I E N C E
2014 to the present "Reid's Portraits of an idol" exhibition New York City Street vendor.
2006-present Production of “Reid’s Portrait of an Idol” series
1995-1997 Owner and Operator of Yo’ Mama’s Café, Chicago, IL
1987-2005 Production of “Apocalyptic Paintings” series
1989 Sound Assistant and Boom Operator, Film: “War Zone” Chicago, IL
1988 Film Transfer Technician, Film to Video Lab, Chicago, IL
1987 Computer Kinestasis Animator, Director and Editor, Film: “Home” Chicago, IL
1985 Slide Production for Superbowl 19, “Quicksilver” Chicago, IL
1984 Director and Editor, Film: “Take Time” Chicago, IL
1984 Cameraman, Film: “Color West” Broadview, IL
1983 Director and Kinestasis Animator, Film: “Gold” Chicago, IL
1981 Director and Editor, Film: “Help” Chicago, IL
1975 Photojournalist, The Chicago Journal, Chicago, IL
1975 Photojournalist, The Chicago Daily Defender, Chicago, IL
E X H I B I T I O N S
2019-Brooklyn Borough Hall, "Reid's Portraits of an Idol"
2018-National Action Network 2018 Conference gallery showing
2016-Hudson Guild Gallery, Chelsea Manhattan
2003-2007 Flat Iron Building, Chicago, IL, “Apocalyptic Paintings” and “Reid’s Portrait of an Idol”
2003 Streets of New York City, “Apocalyptic Paintings”
1995-1997 Yo’ Mama’s Café, Chicago, IL, “Apocalyptic Paintings”
1993-1994 “R” Gallery, Chicago, IL, “Apocalyptic Paintings”
1986 The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL, Placement in Art Show, Painting: “Linda”
1985 Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, IL, Placement in juried film exhibit, Film: “Gold”
1984 Channel 11, Chicago, IL, Aired Film: “Gold”
1982 Cable Network Spectrum, Chicago, IL, Aired Film: “I’m Standing Through It”
A W A R D S
2009 Puffin Foundation Artist Grant Recipient
E D U C A T I O N
1985-1987 Post Baccalaureate Degree, The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL Concentration: Film-making
1980-1985 BA, Columbia College, Chicago, IL Concentration: Film, Video and Photography
1981 United States Air Force, Airman, Honorable Discharge
1979-1980 Independent Studies, The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL Concentration: Film, Painting and Color Photography
2014 to the present "Reid's Portraits of an idol" exhibition New York City Street vendor.
2006-present Production of “Reid’s Portrait of an Idol” series
1995-1997 Owner and Operator of Yo’ Mama’s Café, Chicago, IL
1987-2005 Production of “Apocalyptic Paintings” series
1989 Sound Assistant and Boom Operator, Film: “War Zone” Chicago, IL
1988 Film Transfer Technician, Film to Video Lab, Chicago, IL
1987 Computer Kinestasis Animator, Director and Editor, Film: “Home” Chicago, IL
1985 Slide Production for Superbowl 19, “Quicksilver” Chicago, IL
1984 Director and Editor, Film: “Take Time” Chicago, IL
1984 Cameraman, Film: “Color West” Broadview, IL
1983 Director and Kinestasis Animator, Film: “Gold” Chicago, IL
1981 Director and Editor, Film: “Help” Chicago, IL
1975 Photojournalist, The Chicago Journal, Chicago, IL
1975 Photojournalist, The Chicago Daily Defender, Chicago, IL
E X H I B I T I O N S
2019-Brooklyn Borough Hall, "Reid's Portraits of an Idol"
2018-National Action Network 2018 Conference gallery showing
2016-Hudson Guild Gallery, Chelsea Manhattan
2003-2007 Flat Iron Building, Chicago, IL, “Apocalyptic Paintings” and “Reid’s Portrait of an Idol”
2003 Streets of New York City, “Apocalyptic Paintings”
1995-1997 Yo’ Mama’s Café, Chicago, IL, “Apocalyptic Paintings”
1993-1994 “R” Gallery, Chicago, IL, “Apocalyptic Paintings”
1986 The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL, Placement in Art Show, Painting: “Linda”
1985 Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, IL, Placement in juried film exhibit, Film: “Gold”
1984 Channel 11, Chicago, IL, Aired Film: “Gold”
1982 Cable Network Spectrum, Chicago, IL, Aired Film: “I’m Standing Through It”
A W A R D S
2009 Puffin Foundation Artist Grant Recipient
E D U C A T I O N
1985-1987 Post Baccalaureate Degree, The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL Concentration: Film-making
1980-1985 BA, Columbia College, Chicago, IL Concentration: Film, Video and Photography
1981 United States Air Force, Airman, Honorable Discharge
1979-1980 Independent Studies, The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL Concentration: Film, Painting and Color Photography
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