Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror
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Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror

A blue acrylic tabletop resting on a metal chair with leather straps. A brown ovoid shape with a large stick behind it sits atop the table.
Jessi Reaves, Big vanity with modesty flap, 2025. Photo: GC Photography Courtesy the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York.

Using readymade furniture, found objects, and new and recycled materials, New York–based artist Jessi Reaves (US, b. 1986) dismantles known forms and remakes them into objects that confound preexisting notions of function and beauty.

While Reaves’s earlier work focused on deconstructing and hybridizing well-known mid-century modern designs, her more recent work has moved toward an almost grotesque sense of accumulation. Eschewing ideas of mastery and preciousness, she opts instead for play and provocation. Bulging at the seams and held together by sawdust glue, Reaves’s art willfully reflects its own making.

Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror marks the artist’s first solo museum show, featuring a suite of new pieces that span a diverse array of media, including sculpture, video, and installation. Inspired by murals made during the WPA (Works Progress Administration) of the 1930s and 1940s, these new works meditate on the nature of labor and its visibility.

Mary Ceruti, Executive Director; with Laurel Rand-Lewis, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts

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  • Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror is made possible with support from the Edward R. Bazinet Charitable Foundation and RBC Wealth Management. Additional support is provided by Marguerite Steed Hoffman, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, and Sarah Miller Meigs.