Jessi Reaves, a sculptor born in 1986 in Portland, Oregon, presents her exhibition "process invented the mirror" at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. The show features her early works that incorporate severed limbs of mid-century furniture into crude constructions, humorously questioning the elevation of clean lines and rational forms as universal good taste, alongside recent visually dense sculptures that emphasize handiwork.
The exhibition matters because Reaves' work critically examines the assumptions and values embedded in everyday objects, challenging conventional notions of design and taste. By deconstructing and reassembling furniture forms, she offers a provocative commentary on the intersection of art, craft, and domestic life, contributing to ongoing dialogues about material culture and aesthetic hierarchies in contemporary sculpture.