Clara Reed

CLARA REED

BIO

Clara Jeanne Reed (b. 1999) is an artist, historian, and writer born and raised in a small town in Idaho who currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Most of her work revolves around

self-portraiture, where she used photography to abstract and fragment her own body. As a queer female artist, she positions her own body as a field of inquiry to question the very limits of what identity can do. Currently in her practice she is dedicated to using photography to break through conventions of the family album through code-switching, stagednarratives, and experimentation with materiality of the image to confront sexuality and spirituality, and prove that they are not mutually exclusive. As a trained art historian as well as practitioner, she adopts a research oriented approach to image making, to investigate how self-portraiture can serve as a site of heritage, history, and possibility. It is important toher to be at the forefront of social and cultural movements in the art world to investigate ways that art education can be reformed to be more interrogative, intersectional, and inclusive.

She has a masters from the Institute of Fine Arts in Manhattan and BFA from NYU Tisch in Photography and Imaging. She has exhibited bi-coastally with NCWCA, Arc Gallery, The Living Gallery, and the School of Visual Arts, amongothers. Her first monograph was published by Snap Collective out of Copenhagen in April 2024 titled Soma/Psyche: Self Portraits of the

Body and Mind. Her writing has been published by CMSMC and the International Human Rights Festival. She has participated in residencies both nationally and globally including Mudhouse Residency in Crete, Greece and School of Visual Arts Residency in NYC. She has spoken at

multiple conferences at domestic and international universities including Rutgers, UNC, SUNY, and Universidad de los Andes.

EDUCATION

2023 MA, History of Art and Archaeology, Institute of Fine Arts NYU

Masters Thesis: “For the Most Beautiful: Assembling a Performance of Beauty in Judith Golden’s Self Portraits

2021 BFA, Photography and Imaging; Art History, NYU Tisch School of the Arts

Honors Thesis: “Carving Space: Adrian Piper’s Mythic Being”; BFA Senior Thesis: Metamorphoses

Minor: Hellenic Studies

Study Abroad in Athens, Greece for Language Intensive; Study Abroad in Paris, France

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2024 Soma/Psyche: Self Portraits of the Body and Mind, Snap Collective at The Living Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

Dress Up, Harsh Collective LLC, October 25-November 9, 2024, Brooklyn, NY.

Dreams & Nightmares, Boomer Gallery, October 11-16, 2024, Tower Bridge London, UK.

ACCESS: An Ordinary Notion, curated by Karen M. Gutfreund, at Arc Gallery with the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art, June 15-July 7, 2024, San Francisco, CA.

Session I, Mudhouse Residency, June 2024, Agios Ioannis, Crete, Greece.

Nudus, Gallerium Art, Biafarin Online Exhibition, April 25-June 25, 2024.

2023 Distortions: Moscow Conceptualists Working Today, 205 Hudson Gallery, Fall 2023, NY, NY.

Fragments, curated by Haley Ferber, School of Visual Arts Artist Residency Program, December 19-January 30, 2024, New York, NY.

Eclecticism, curated by Jonathan Goodman and Kuzma Vostrikov, Orangé Art Foundation, November 30-January 30, 2024.

Rear Window, Galerie Anty Warhol, State of Wonder, May 2023, New York, NY.

Tapestries of Memory, curated by Daniel Kuzinez, Ornithology Jazz Club, January 1-30, Brooklyn, NY.

2022 Perspectives, East Village Art Collection, October, New York, NY.

Liminal Frames: Body Agency, curated by Alexa Cardamone and Patrice Scott, Carrie Able Gallery, April, Brooklyn, NY.

2021 Rebond, Anthem Live Art Collective, June, New York, NY.

BFA Thesis Show, NYU Tisch, 721 Broadway, Spring 2021, New York, NY.

RESIDENCIES/WORKSHOPS

2025

Upcoming Light and Ink Workshop with Laura Larson

2024

Private Workshop with Justine Kurland.

Mudhouse Residency Program, Agios Ioannis, Crete, Greece.

2023

School of Visual Arts Residency Program

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AS AUTHOR

2024 SOMA/PSYCHE: Self Portraits of the Body and Mind. Snap Collective. Copenhagen, Denmark. Jun 2024. “ThreeBuffaloes.” Queer Voices of the World. International Human Rights Arts Festival, December 2023. “Amazon Warriors in Classical Greek Art: Exploring Patriarchal Foundations in Ancient Greece.” The

Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture, June 3, 2022.

“Metamorphoses.” ISO Magazine Issue 19: SOLACE, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, May 2021.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Shelby White and Leon Levy Travel Grant Recipient (2022), Antonina S. Ranieri International Scholars Fund Recipient (2022),Barbara and Ben Aliza Award (2021), New York University Founders Day Award (2021), High Honors in NYU Dept. Art History’s Honors Thesis Program Dean’s List (2017-2021), Thomas Drysdale Fund Grant Recipient (2019).