Richard Reed Solo Exhibition Reception at Bozarts Friday

Bunchs Lunchbox  |  09/02/2009 7:00 am

I was once told, "Art never paid the bills for anybody." Thankfully, there are guys out there like
Richard Reed who prove daily that that's not true.

Aside from being a successful career artist, Reed is an accomplished and heralded painter who's built a reputation as one of Toledo's most influential artists. His humble, jovial persona, along with his talent, success, and sincere enthusiasm for up-and-coming artists, has also earned him respect as an elder statesman of the local arts scene.

Reed's instantly identifiable works toy with concepts of color and technique. His paintings and drawings often feature vague and blurry backgrounds held together by, or that hold up, characters, sometimes objects, that stir imaginative stories for viewers. These are the stories of our American lives.

In Reed's work there lives something nostalgic, heartbreaking, and hopeful all at once. There are stories both delivered and unspoken that draw us into the art, that introduce us to lives we may not have lived, and may not even know, but that tug, ever so slight and familiarly, at our heartstrings.

Sometimes there is sadness, pity, joy, or simple confusion. Whatever it is that Reed approaches in his wild splotches of muted, washed-out colors and/or vaguely sketched or finely-defined characters - it always succeeds in making us just that much more aware of the world that surrounds us.

This Friday, September 4, a collection of Reed's work will be displayed at the Bozarts Fine Arts & Music Gallery at 151 St. Clair St. for an opening reception. The event will take place from 6 p.m. to midnight. The exhibit will run through September 19.

I urge you to come enjoy the work of a genuine Toledo talent, and to do so in one of the most unique and wholly original arts spaces in the city.

For info: 419-464-5785 or [email protected]