by Leigh Stutler

The Bio-Medical Library is pleased to announce the latest installment in its rotating Art@Bio-Med series: Mindset by interdisciplinary artist Jes Reyes.

Exhibit details

What: Mindset
When: August 21 – December 21, 2018
Where: Bio-Medical Library, 2nd floor, Diehl Hall

About the exhibit

This collection features colorful abstract paintings created during a difficult period in Reyes’ life. The art on display represents how important painting has been for the artist and how the medium has become central to her artistic practice and overall wellbeing. While recently living through loss, painting freed Reyes’ mind from long-term grief, allowing her to appreciate the past while working to move forward.

“I am an experimental filmmaker that turned to painting in 2015 after my mother passed away due to a terminal illness,” says Reyes. She initially channeled her grief by creating video poems that focused intimately on her experience living with loss. While the videos helped her process her mother’s death, she found that they often led to an emotionally difficult place.  

“By adding painting to my approach, I’ve been able to create work that isn’t necessarily related to my mother’s death and our life together, but more about where I am now that my mother is physically gone,” Reyes explains. “Abstract painting has balanced my creative practice and has been very therapeutic for me because of its intuitive nature. It helps me to stay in the present and to experiment with thoughts as they take shape; all of which creates for me a fluid mindset centered on growth and learning.”

About the artist

​Jes Reyes is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and arts administrator living and working in the Twin Cities. Her photography and video art have exhibited with Artists in Storefronts, Altered Esthetics, Feminist Video Quarterly, Made Here, and the Walker Art Center. Her mixed media visual art has exhibited at The Show Gallery, MacRostie Art Center, Altered Esthetics, Workhorse Coffee Bar, and the Hennepin County Library. ​

Reyes is the founder of the Altered Esthetics Film Festival and coordinates programming for Avivo ArtWorks, a multifaceted art studio for artists living with mental illness. Reyes also works as an Artist Career Consultant for Springboard for the Arts.

If interested in purchasing art or interviewing, please contact the artist directly.

Jes Reyes
www.jesreyes.com
jesreyesart@gmail.com
(612) 598-6684