2023 RECEPIENT - CREATIVE SUPPORT FOR INDIVIDUALS - MINNESOTA STATE ARTS BOARD
Photo by Marilyn Lamoreaux
Creative practice
Bio:
Jes Reyes is an interdisciplinary artist, artist organizer, and art facilitator. She identifies as queer, feminist, and punk. Her artwork is rooted in play, vulnerability, experimentation, collaboration, and the blending of disciplines. She has exhibited and screened her artwork throughout the Twin Cities. An extension of Jes’s art practice is in community organizing and resource building for artists. She is the founder of Moonplay Cinema, a support system for women, nonbinary, trans, and other artists marginalized due to gender. As Art Supervisor at Fresh Eye Arts, she co-leads a progressive art studio program supporting artists with disabilities with Lauren Hughes. Prior to that, she coordinated Avivo ArtWorks, a multifaceted art studio for artists living with mental illness. Jes also provides support to artists as an Artist Career Consultant with Springboard for the Arts. She is passionate about bringing people together, equitable arts leadership, and career services for all artists.
Jes is originally from Southern California and has called St. Paul, Minnesota home since 2005. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Film & Electronic Arts and Women Studies from California State University, Long Beach, and a Master of Liberal Studies from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Recently, she served as a juror for the Red Wing Artist Poet Collaboration and is currently a juror for Franconia Sculpture Park's 5 Minute Film Fest. Jes is writing You're a Filmmaker, You're an Artist, a professional practices publication for moving image creators, releasing in spring 2024.
Jes is originally from Southern California and has called St. Paul, Minnesota home since 2005. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Film & Electronic Arts and Women Studies from California State University, Long Beach, and a Master of Liberal Studies from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Recently, she served as a juror for the Red Wing Artist Poet Collaboration and is currently a juror for Franconia Sculpture Park's 5 Minute Film Fest. Jes is writing You're a Filmmaker, You're an Artist, a professional practices publication for moving image creators, releasing in spring 2024.
Artist Statement:
I am an interdisciplinary artist currently creating with textiles, mixed media art, and video. Vibrant, moody colors, grid-like patterns, and organic and familiar shapes are my attempts to practice curiosity and give attention to the unintentional. I create moments of surprise with artwork that inspire and connect visually to playful whimsy, delight, and movement. An underpinning to my work is pensively and inquisitively nostalgic.
I mark space and distance through the visual components of my artwork. I honor making and its process by showing its handmade, sometimes messy, and emotional qualities. I am interested in the curve of the line, whether made through drawing, painting, or weaving. I am interested in the transformation of flatness, using thread, shape, or the wind to evoke ideas of memory, connections to the landscape, or experiences related to the passage of time. I leave threads of yarn hanging unevenly. I use repurposed materials. I believe in the beauty of watercolor’s unpredictability. I seek to find the possibility of merging fiber arts with mixed media art. Sculptural textile pieces and abstract works made with water-based mediums on paper have been my recent creations applying these approaches.
Landlines (working title) is my current project bringing my curiosities in abstract painting, moving image work, and intuitive weaving into one expansive project. The project is pushing and challenging me to recontextualize how I use materials through recycling and being eco-minded. I question and skirt the line between art and craft with this project. My approach and material choices nod to the notion of domesticity, craft, feminism, environmentalism, and the pursuit of art as a form of communication and experience. Heightened with this new body of work, I am consciously working towards engaging tapestry with moving images and tapestry with sculpture. My works on paper are in conversation with this work through diaristic forms. I am at a pivotal moment in my practice; I am inching toward something new, which is exciting for me, particularly as an artist who thrives while blending disciplines.
I mark space and distance through the visual components of my artwork. I honor making and its process by showing its handmade, sometimes messy, and emotional qualities. I am interested in the curve of the line, whether made through drawing, painting, or weaving. I am interested in the transformation of flatness, using thread, shape, or the wind to evoke ideas of memory, connections to the landscape, or experiences related to the passage of time. I leave threads of yarn hanging unevenly. I use repurposed materials. I believe in the beauty of watercolor’s unpredictability. I seek to find the possibility of merging fiber arts with mixed media art. Sculptural textile pieces and abstract works made with water-based mediums on paper have been my recent creations applying these approaches.
Landlines (working title) is my current project bringing my curiosities in abstract painting, moving image work, and intuitive weaving into one expansive project. The project is pushing and challenging me to recontextualize how I use materials through recycling and being eco-minded. I question and skirt the line between art and craft with this project. My approach and material choices nod to the notion of domesticity, craft, feminism, environmentalism, and the pursuit of art as a form of communication and experience. Heightened with this new body of work, I am consciously working towards engaging tapestry with moving images and tapestry with sculpture. My works on paper are in conversation with this work through diaristic forms. I am at a pivotal moment in my practice; I am inching toward something new, which is exciting for me, particularly as an artist who thrives while blending disciplines.
| JES REYES CV |
If you are looking to contact me, please scroll down to find the contact form.
recent work
ART FACILITATION, Projet coordination, AND PRESENTATION
I believe the heart of my creativity is socially engaged. I like to facilitate art experiences, engage artists in community building, and share artwork with others. I do this work independently, through partnerships, and with organizations I work for.
createcreating opportunities to explore through art
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organizeproject coordination and artist organizing
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SHAREbuilding connections through sharing
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community work
Moonplay cinema I am the founder of Moonplay Cinema, a support system and community for women, nonbinary, trans, and other artists and filmmakers marginalized due to gender. We are currently developing professional development opportunities and will hold a screening in early 2024.
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fresh eye artsAs Art Supervisor at Fresh Eye Arts, I co-manage a progressive art studio program supporting artists with disabilities and Fresh Eye Gallery, a community art space in Minneapolis with Lauren Hughes. In this role, I am also the coordinator of Eye to Eye, an exhibition project that pairs 2 artists together who have never met before to collaborate and create new artwork.
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Artist career support
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Since 2017, I have been providing Artist Career Consultations through Springboard for the Arts. In a consultation, I get to know you and your work, help you set goals, and develop realistic strategies to help you reach those goals. I use Springboard's Work of Art Toolkit as a resource during these meetings. I also bring my own experience as a self-employed artist and the knowledge I have gained as an arts administrator and supporting other artists over the last 10 years.
I help artists with career planning, pricing, marketing, time management, grantwriting, portfolio development, project coordination, exhibition planning, community organizing, and more. I can meet with you once, weekly, monthly, once a year. It's up to you as long as our schedules align. I am also great at supportive counseling so if you are looking for someone to listen and hear you, I can be that person. In addition, I have a background in supporting artists with disabilities. My approach is person-centered, patient, resourceful, and non-judging. Springboard for the Arts offers free or low-cost artist career consultations to artists, artist entrepreneurs, and creative small business owners. Meetings can be held over Zoom, the phone, or in person depending on the situation. MN-based artists can start with one free 1-hour consultation. |
News & Updates
Franconia's 5 minute film festFranconia Sculpture Park is once again presenting the Franconia 5 Minute Film Fest.
Jes is serving as a juror and the fest is now open for submissions from artists living in Minnesota and Wisconsin working in video art, film, documentary, animation, or experimental media. |
In RotationAugsburg University's year-long project engages artists in exploring movement through building a regular sketchbook habit. Each month each participating artist posts a new sketch. The project culminates in an exhibition opening September 2023. Jes is one of 21 participating artists.
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Voyage Minnesota interviewOnline magazine interview with Voyage Minnesota, a new media-based platform featuring independent, creative, local entrepreneurs, small businesses, and artists based in Minnesota.
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Stay connected. Receive occasional updates by email.
FIND ME ON:
upcoming events
2023 Red Wing Arts 22nd Poet Artist Collaboration Exhibition
Depot Gallery
Exhibition Dates: April 14 - June 18
Celebration Event: April 30, 1:30 - 4:30 PM
Get details here.
In Rotation Group Exhibition
Augsburg University
Christiansen Gallery
September 21–December 8
more details coming soon!
Pocket Size Weaving
Free workshop with Jes Reyes
more details coming soon!
Depot Gallery
Exhibition Dates: April 14 - June 18
Celebration Event: April 30, 1:30 - 4:30 PM
Get details here.
In Rotation Group Exhibition
Augsburg University
Christiansen Gallery
September 21–December 8
more details coming soon!
Pocket Size Weaving
Free workshop with Jes Reyes
more details coming soon!
Recent exibition
Momentary certainties
Eagan Art House
September - October 2022
Jes Reyes
Hug it Out
Acrylic yarn, embroidery thread, recycled cotton potholder loops
This site-specific fiber art installation, woven and knitted, acts as a warm embrace and explores the changes of seasons.
Eagan Art House’s annual exhibition Momentary Certainties is installed along walking paths and throughout the lawns, meadows, and native grasses. Exhibiting visual art grapples with themes of ephemerality, permanence, nature and change in the landscape.
Hug it Out
Acrylic yarn, embroidery thread, recycled cotton potholder loops
This site-specific fiber art installation, woven and knitted, acts as a warm embrace and explores the changes of seasons.
Eagan Art House’s annual exhibition Momentary Certainties is installed along walking paths and throughout the lawns, meadows, and native grasses. Exhibiting visual art grapples with themes of ephemerality, permanence, nature and change in the landscape.
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Photos by Rick Graves
Jes Reyes is a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Copyright Jes Reyes Art LLC 2023