Reet Das - Artist Statement and Bio

Statement/Bio:
I look down at Mother Earth and she looks up to Father Sky. I feel their conversations, their arguments, their negotiations and their impasses as my paintings unfold; piece by piece, story upon story within their gaze. The Earth is flat in my work, the traces of our navigation have faded and our bones are picked clean. The animals rule this Earth, telling their stories to the birds who remind Mother and Father How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin and How the Elephant got his Trunk. We know these beautiful messengers fly beyond water and beyond sky, perhaps to a heaven, known also by other names. In our envy, we attempt to grow artificial wings and fins stretching to sun and moon, but so far…we remain picked clean.

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Reet Das grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His work draws from his childhood creating collaged, animal filled picture books with his mother, obsessively reading Rudyard Kipling (references above), disassembling and not always reassembling small engines, drawing mazes instead of paying attention in class, making maps with his mother’s jewelry collection when she wasn’t home, and even raising mail-order Sea Monkeys.

Solo Exhibitions:
2012 - Venus Knitting Mills, Brooklyn, NY
2009 - Gershwin Hotel, New York City
2006 - American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy
1999 - Cellar Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
1998 - Internal Journey, Westchester Community College, New York
1997 - West Side Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
1994 - Meghalaya Landscape Paintings, Oberoi Gallery, Calcutta, India
1993 - Las Tierras, Museo Quetzaltenango, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
1993 - Huesos, Galaria Roeches, Xela, Guatemala
1990 - Revolver Space, Boston, Massachusetts

Group Exhibitions:
2018
Reunion Show, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
2017
House of Sky, Westbeth Gallery, New York City
2015
Bushwick Open Studios (Community Event), Brooklyn, NY
Erasing Borders 2015 - Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art - Traveling Exhibition:
    - The Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY
    - The Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
2014
  Indo-American Arts Council- Traveling Exhibition:
    - Arthur M. Berger Gallery, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY
    - Crossing Art Gallery, Flushing, NY
    - The Queen's Museum, Queens, NY
2013
  Bowery Gallery [Curated by Joan Snyder], NYC
  Tang Museum, A Journey Though Paintings, Saratoga Springs, NY
  Erasing Borders 2013 - Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art - Traveling Exhibition:
    - The Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY
    - Flushing Town Hall, Queens, NY
    - Arthur M. Berger Gallery, Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY
2012
   Snails & Trails Exhibition, Lake George Arts Project, Lake George, NY
   Erasing Borders 2012 - Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art - Traveling Exhibition:
    - ART6, Richmond, VA
    - Bronx Charter School for Arts, Bronx, NY
    - Crossing Art Gallery, Queens, NY
2011
    One Foot in the Other World, Brooklyn Artists Gym, Brooklyn, NY
    Erasing Borders 2011 - Traveling Exhibition:
    - Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, University of Connecticut
    - Aicon Gallery, New York City
    - The Wang Center, SUNY Stony Brook, NY
    - Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY
2010
    Signature Power: Legends and Other Myths , Micro Museum, New York City
2009
   Zoo II, Courhouse Gallery, Lake George, NY
   Boomerang , Michel Allen Gallery, New York City
   Inagural Show, Art Raw, New York City
2008
   Animals in Your Kingdom, New York City
   Reunion, Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, NY
   SCOPE, Dean Project, Puerto Rico
   Antagonist Art Movement, New York City
   Teeny Tiny Show, New York City
2007 - Gallery 51, North Adams, Massachusetts
2004 - International Center of Photography (ICP), “Only Skin Deep, National Survey”
2001 - Rotunda Gallery, “It Happened in Lime Mills”, Brooklyn NY
2000
   Bronx Museum, New York City
   Lineage, d.u.m.b.o. art center, New York City
   Schick Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York
1999
    Schick Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York
   Richard Anderson Gallery,New York City
1998
    *9, West Chelsea Arts Center, New York City
   SUBTEC, Gallery Taranto, New York City
   Painting and the Laser Copy, Columbia University, New York City
   West Side Gallery, New York City
1997
   Digital Salon, New York City
   Circulo de Belles Artes, Madrid, Spain
   Gale Gates Et Al, New York City
1993 - Los Viajeros, Museo Quetzaltenango, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
1992 - Paid Pleasure, Revolver Space, Boston, Massachusetts
1991
   Aiken Gallery "Drawings & Paintings", Boston, Massachusetts
   Contempary monoprints, Eidenbach Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts
1988 - Schick Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York
1987 - Schick Gallery, Saratoga Springs, New York

Residencies / Publications / Lectures:
2005/2006 Visiting Artist [11 months] American Academy in Rome
1999/2000 The Bronx Museum - Artist In The Market Place, 1999 Residency Program, New York
1992 Beaver Mill [Mass MOCA] - Residency in Monoprinting
1987 S.A.C.I. - Florence, Italy - Residency program for Painting
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The Times of India, Art Spotlight, July 14, 2000 issue
Twentieth Annual Exhibition Catalog, The Bronx Museum, New York City, July 2000
Artist Statements - Leonardo, MIT Press, Volume 30, Number 5 1997
Collector/Dealers - Simon Says, ArtZone/Ovation Art Network, October-December 1997
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FIG Gallery, New York City Artists, Lecture: "NYC Artists", Santa Monica, CA, June 2000
Gallery 42, Lecture: "Art and the Digital Environmen"t, New Delhi, India 1999
Westchester Community College, Lecture: "Mapping The Body", Westchester, NY 1998