Walker Art Center to Open Artist Jessi Reaves First Museum Solo Exhibition

On August 7, the Walker Art Center will open artist Jessi Reaves’s first solo museum exhibition, titled Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror. Reaves’s practice engages with the making and unmaking of objects, the labor of creation, and the interplay between functionality and absurdity. She begins with found and fabricated furniture objects, which she then modifies, dismantles, and improves upon towards a sculptural end. For her upcoming exhibition at the Walker, Reaves created a new body of work that draws upon a range of source materials, including those related to the Works Progress Administration and to figures in the Art Deco, Art Nouveau, and Japanese Post-Modernism movements. Together, the works highlight Reaves’s ongoing engagement with notions of value, nostalgia, and consumer culture. Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror will remain on view through January 4, 2026.

The exhibition features nearly 20 new sculptural works that reflect the artist’s characteristic style and that also see her embracing new materials and processes. The objects exist in the nebulous space between function and aesthetics as everyday objects like lamps, chairs, and cabinets are deconstructed and remade into new forms at once familiar and foreign. Many of the original pieces include moving parts, with doors, hinges, shades, and bulbs that underscore their functional origin. Through the process of transformation, these parts become fixed in space, losing the purpose of their movement while still allowing for different visual configurations.

The featured works are inspired by a breadth of sources, both global and personal. Several of the works incorporate collage techniques with birding magazines from the artist’s late mother. These collages are applied to the raw materials of the works—such as plywood and plexiglass. In this way, the sculptures contain an essential reference to adolescence and a spirit of adaptation. Other works in the exhibition engage with the creative output of Art Deco designer Paul T. Frankl, Art Nouveau designer Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, and the Japanese Post-Modernist Shiro Kuramata’s Miss Blanc Chair. These references expand the historical movements and objects with which Reaves’s practice is in dialogue.

“I was initially drawn to Jessi’s work by its refusal to behave as sculpture or furniture as well as its lack of reverence for what most of us consider icons of design,” said Mary Ceruti, Executive Director and exhibition curator. “Jessi has an intense interest in design history as it co-exists in our daily environment with folk and vernacular forms. The work featured in the exhibition is rich with sculptural details that trigger sense memory and visual pleasure.”

RELATED EVENT 
Community Opening: Jessi Reaves
Opening-Day Talk & Reception
Thursday, August 7, 6 pm
Free

Executive Director Mary Ceruti, Chief Curator Henriette Huldisch, and Head of Public Engagement, Learning, and Impact (PELI) Amanda Hunt invite Twin Cities communities to join the Walker Art Center for the opening of the new exhibition Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror.

Celebrate the opening with the artist and Executive Director Mary Ceruti in conversation in the Walker Cinema, followed by a reception in Cargill Lounge featuring drinks and small bites by Amy Thielen, a two-time James Beard Award-winning writer and chef, and Kristin Tyborski.

This event requires a free ticket, and seating is first come, first served.

ABOUT JESSI REAVES 
Born in Portland in 1986, Jessi Reaves studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and is currently based in New York. Her work has been showcased in numerous prestigious exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and the Carnegie International, and is held in the collections of the Brandhorst Museum, Munich; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Walker, among others. Her work questions the notion that form follows function by creating pieces that transcend this boundary. Both playful and provocative, the hand-crafted sculptures are baroque and sometimes grotesque assemblages constructed from furniture, decorative items, material scraps, and other disparate materials.

ABOUT THE WALKER ART CENTER 
The Walker Art Center is a renowned multidisciplinary arts institution that presents, collects, and supports the creation of groundbreaking work across the visual and performing arts, moving image, and design. Guided by the belief that art has the power to bring joy and solace and the ability to unite people through dialogue and shared experiences, the Walker engages communities through a dynamic array of exhibitions, performances, events, and initiatives. Its multiacre campus includes 65,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, the state-of-the-art McGuire Theater and Walker Cinema, and ample green space that connects with the adjoining Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The Garden, a partnership with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, is one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States and home to the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Recognized for its ambitious program and growing collection of more than 16,000 works, the Walker embraces emerging art forms and amplifies the work of artists from the Twin Cities and from across the country and the globe. Its broad spectrum of offerings makes it a lively and welcoming hub for artistic expression, creative innovation, and community connection.

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Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror is made possible with support from the Edward R. Bazinet Charitable Foundation and RBC Wealth Management. Additional support is provided by Marguerite Steed Hoffman, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, and Sarah Miller Meigs.