Estate of Hunter Reynolds
I-DEA The Goddess Within a collaboration between Maxine Henryson & Hunter Reynolds
Carousel (Antwerp, Belgium), 1994
archival pigment print
sheet: 22 x 16 ins. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
image: 18 x 12 ins. (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
P·P·O·W is proud to present Butur, Hunter Reynolds’ first solo exhibition with the gallery. This exhibition will include his current projects and an installation of his work from the 1990’s when he performed extensively as his now legendary alter ego, Patina du Prey. For over twenty years Reynolds has been using photography, performance and installation to express his experience as an HIV positive gay man. His work addresses issues of gender, identity, socio-politics, sexual histories, mourning, loss, survival, hope and healing.
Hunter Reynolds
Fire Glitter Totem, 2012
wood, glitter enamel and beads
37 x 13 x 9 ins.
93.98 x 33.2 x 22.86 cm
Butur is Mongolian for cocoon and is the place in which the internal shaman is transformed and reborn. For the last three years Reynolds has been creating shamanistic fire rituals on a sacred Mohawk site at the Easton Mountain Retreat Center in upstate New York. Reynolds has created three ritual art making sites: The Beading Tree, The Art Tent and The Ash Field which are centered around a sacred Fire Pitt. During celestial celebrations and purification ceremonies, often with participating guests of the retreat, Reynolds creates elaborately decorated Totem fire alters made of fallen trees that are adorned with offerings. According to Mongolian tradition, once the offerings are burnt, the devotees are cleansed. Currently exhibited is a Totem fire alter that has been recently burnt in a ritual that Reynolds has carved and sealed with glitter.
Using the remnants of the charred tree trunks, glitter, ash and burned objects, Reynolds furthers his mythopoetic iconography with a series of colorful totem collages, glitter masks and mandalas. Inspired by his deep connection to the cycles of nature, native rituals and the spiritual subconscious, Reynolds creates these artworks to explore their healing capabilities.
I-DEA The Goddess Within a collaboration between Maxine Henryson & Hunter Reynolds
Rose Room (Elbschloss Villa, Hamburg, Germany), 1993
photographed by Maxine Henryson
archival pigment print
sheet: 22 x 16 ins. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
image: 18 x 12 ins. (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
Also exhibited will be a selection of iconic photographs from I-DEA, The Goddess Within, a historic collaboration of the performance art of Patina du Prey and documentary photography of Maxine Henryson. Their work together spanned 8 years and 25 performances done all over the world. During the years of the collaboration Reynolds’ diagnosis was a pending death sentence making the photographs a moving and poignant record of the years before HIV drugs were available. Patina existed as a mythical figure that deliberately disrupts gender icons in order to relate to the viewer as a shamanistic transgendered embodiment of fantasy and healing. Patina’s “Mourning Dress,” adorned by strips of photographed flowers appears as if ascending towards the heavens and marks the loss of Reynolds’ close friend to the AIDS virus.
Hunter Reynolds was born in 1959 in Rochester, Minnesota. Hunter Reynolds has been the recipient of many grants and residencies, including several Pollock Krasner awards. He has had numerous solo exhibitions including: Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY; White Columns, New York, NY; Artist Space, New York, NY; Simon Watson Gallery, New York, NY; Creative Time, New York, NY; Participant Inc., New York, NY; Momenta, Brooklyn, NY; Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MA; ICA Boston, Boston, MA; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA; NGBK Berlin, Germany; and DOCUMENTA, Kassel, Germany. He has been included in group exhibitions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA; Aldrich Museum of Art, Ridgefield, CT; Akademie der Kunste and Kunst-Werke in Berlin, Germany and more. The Fales Library and Special Collections/New York University recently acquired the archives of Hunter Reynolds for its Downtown Collection.
Hunter Reynolds
Mandala, 2012
acrylic and thread on paper
102 x 82 ins.
259.8 x 208.28 cm
Hunter Reynolds
Shaman Batzorig Totem Collage, 2009
acrylic and thread on paper
41 1/2 x 18 ins.
105.41 x 45.72 cm
Hunter Reynolds
Shaman Tatianna Totem Collage, 2009
acrylic and thread on paper
42 x 17 1/2 ins.
106.68 x 44.45 cm
Hunter Reynolds
The Star of Mintaka Glitter Mask, 2011
ash, glitter, acrylic, polymer on arches archival cold press
20 x 15 ins.
50.8 x 38.1 cm
Hunter Reynolds
The Star of Bellatrix Glitter Mask, 2011
ash, glitter, acrylic, polymer on arches archival cold press
20 x 15 ins.
50.8 x 38.1 cm
Hunter Reynolds
The Star of Scheat Glitter Mask, 2011
ash, glitter, acrylic, polymer on arches archival cold press
20 x 15 ins.
50.8 x 38.1 cm
I-DEA The Goddess Within a collaboration between Maxine Henryson & Hunter Reynolds
The Open Window (Elbschloss Villa, Hamburg, Germany), 1993
photographed by Maxine Henryson
archival pigment print
sheet: 22 x 16 ins. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
image: 18 x 12 ins. (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
I-DEA The Goddess Within a collaboration between Maxine Henryson & Hunter Reynolds
So it is a Lover Who Speaks (Elbschloss Villa, Hamburg, Germany), 1993
archival pigment print
sheet: 22 x 16 ins. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
image: 18 x 12 ins. (45.7 x 30.5 cm)
Hunter Reynolds
Mourning Dress, 1997
fabric, c-prints and thread
84 x 84 x 28 ins.
213.36 x 213.36 x 71.12 cm
Staking a history on the fragility of the body, Reynolds explores mortality in an exultant way, nurturing a congregation around the fire and then transporting that energy into the gallery, where the rich colors of vibrant totemic forms populate a new assembly.