Born in 1979, Blaine, MN, US
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US
M.F.A. University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, US
B.F.A. Painting & New Genre, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, US
Reihsen belongs to a generation of painters that naturally integrated digital tools into their art while still being in high school in the 90s. Up until today, he would use computer terms to describe his process, where he would 'copy and paste, distort, warp and rotate', only to end up 'scaling up' or 'scaling down'. In the end however, he is a master of texture and surface, seemingly at odds with at screens and pixels, whose works continually gain admiration and constant intrigue. The twin elements of digital maven and manual laborer are what define Reihsen both as a person and as an artist. As put by Ed Schad, 'the most urgent question of his painting is whether these two worlds ultimately have to be at odds or whether he can find a vocabulary that dissolves the split entirely.' (Modern Painters, June 2014)
Text courtesy Praz-Delavallade.
