BIO
Laurence Myers Reese (he/him, they/them) works in performance, installation, painting, and video. He lives on occupied Southern Paiute lands, in Paradise, NV.
His research investigates the use of the queer body and queer semiotics to navigate and disrupt cis-normative environments. He received his MFA from the University of Nevada Las Vegas in 2022, and his BFA in Studio Art from the University of Oklahoma, Norman in 2012. He has performed at KillJoy Collective (Portland, Oregon), Front/Space (Kansas City, Missouri) and 21C Museum Hotel (Bentonville, Arkansas). His work has been featured locally in the Las Vegas Weekly, and internationally on Hyperallergic.
Reese is a co-founder of the Vegas Institute for Contemporary Engagement, a research lab for art and experimentation. They have worked as an independent curator, arts writer, non-profit administrator, factory worker, educator, and art gallery director. He recently co-curated The Other Side of Paradise at the Barrick Museum of Art (Las Vegas, NV), and his writing is regularly published in Southwest Contemporary and Settlers + Nomads.
STATEMENT
Queer narratives reveal the precariousness of binaries. I reflect on the trauma of these oppressive binaries (gay/straight, able/disabled, cis/trans, male/female, top/bottom, normal/queer, migrant/native, sterile/erotic, human/nature). These systems limit progress.
Using watercolor, video, sound art, performance, and sculpture, I draw on queer collective memory, language studies, opera, narratives of migration, the desert landscape, Jewish mysticism, femme magic, and my own lived experience.
I approach making with a desire for queer utopia. My work sometimes caters to marginalized audiences and I often employ insider cultural touchstones that act as hidden reference points and clues to narrative.