Reena Spaulings Fine Art

In 2004, the New York-based artist Reena Spaulings emerged from the daily operation of an art gallery (Reena Spaulings Fine Art, founded by John Kelsey & Emily Sundblad) on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Often playing on the double-identity of art dealer and artist, Spaulings’ work undermines professional divisions of labor and disciplinary hierarchies, while interrogating accepted notions of individual authorship and agency.For her first solo show «The One & Only», 2005, Reena Spaulings presented a series of hybrid painting/sculptures in the form of wall-mounted flags. Using the kind of readymade flagpoles commonly seen on suburban American house fronts and small New York business-fronts, this gesture could be read as more of an occupation than an installation, claiming a territory in another dealer’s Chelsea gallery in order to problematize the protocols by which dealers «represent» artists and their work.Reena Spaulings has also produced publications, performances and underground dance music. Reena Spaulings Fine Art is located on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.