EDUCATION
B.F.A., Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA
M.F.A., Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
Thinking Inside The Box
I find myself attracted to artists who are intensely concentrated–and Randall Reid certainly fits the bill. He has found a structure that fits his needs–the modestly sized, nearly square rectangle. He continues to mine it for all the content it can yield to the inquiring mind. In the modern era we have been constantly challenged to think outside the box. Randall’s self-imposed challenge is to think and work inside that
box. The result is a constant re-thinking and re-working of the various possibilities and permutations that challenge creates; and re-thinking and re-working is what Reid does best. From the found materials he has scrounged, scavenged, salvaged,
and spirited away for four decades, he succeeds in making magical intimate worlds in a box. Reid’s worlds are alchemical wonders–small cabinets of curiosities, beautifully
crafted and thoughtfully (and caringly) constructed. Each implies a narrative, begs for an accompanying story. His is an architecture of dreams and visions–little glimpses into the imagination–little forays into the psyche. He allows us, the viewers, to complete the sentence, to provide the denouement, to finish the dream. Reid is a subtle colorist who manages to be bold. He is a formalist who avoids the formulaic. His strength is in his ability to wring every possibility out of the parameters of size and materials that he has placed on himself. Lately he has gone more deeply still, using materials that actually include text and thus pushing the narrative even further, but continually giving us only part of the picture–teasing and taunting us to fill in the blanks, to connect the dots, to write the last chapter. Recurring encounters with Reid’s work embolden me to imagine that I am an archaeologist uncovering fragments of some not-so-long-lost civilization; forcing me to envision who the inhabitants of this place and time were, conjuring up visions of villages, towns and cities filled with craftspeople who lovingly built for permanence and stability. Randall Reid is ever the artisan, crafting whole concepts within a measured rectangle, but he ultimately
thinks outside the box in his art. He is a magician, a conjurer, an alchemist, an architect. He is a weaver of tales, a maker of worlds within a box.
– Clint Willour
Curator, Galveston Arts Center
