Artist Biography
Reynold’s work occupies a range of media, from photography through to painting and sculpture. Having gained a degree in a non arts related subject, Reynolds has an entirely auto didactical approach when it comes to his art career. "I have always been fascinated by wartime, and things such as Germanic symbols." Reynold’s early work focused on assorted watercolors, with the first ten years of his career spent heavily inspired by the likes of John Singer Sargent and his portraiture. Asked to cite influences, Reynolds recalls Edward Hopper, Albert Ryder, and Ed Keinholz. "I also love the energy and textures of Anslem Keifer and Edward Hopper’s use of light," he muses.
"After dabbling heavily in watercolor work, I moved to heavily textural paintings, using oil paints, rice, straw and welded steel with resin which you can see in my ghost ship series." More recent influences Reynolds cites include Mario Merz and his sculpture, Chuck Close and his portraiture, Christo, Sidney Goodman, and Larissa Wilson. Removed from conventional notions of classicism and beauty, Reynolds’ work reflects the interplay of order and chaos through a paradoxical melding of popular icons.
In addition to his paintings, Reynolds dabbles heavily in sculpture, including a series of burning boats and aircraft carriers, with eight different pieces in all. The installation pieces consist of steel sculpted frames covered with resin Japanese rice paper that stretches over the steel like skin. Sunken ships and aircraft carriers make references to themes of violence and battle, serving as a memorandum to a forgotten era, a moment of sombre tragedy as they sink. The carriers are captured in poses that recreate a sinking or listing vessel; they are suspended in time, frozen as they sink into the ground. Frames range from 4 to 7 feet long seemingly scaled to fit the viewers imagination.
"I’ve always had a fascination for the destruction of man and the earth. This could translate as something as slow as rust on a sea freighter or the beauty of a ship’s final plunge into darkness, or the hypnotic site of a large aircraft, cartwheeling in slow gyrations towards the earth and the earth in turn shattered with debris."