F. David Reif

Born in 1941, David Reif grew up in southern Ohio on the densely wooded outskirts of West Cincinnati and in the hills and alfalfa fields of his grandmother’s farm in West-Central Kentucky. Often surrounded by dense forests but always near urban development, he always thought himself to be in the midst of a slow epic conflict between the raw wilderness of North America and the encroaching development of industrialized civilization. Like the Edward Hopper painting “Gas”, with its 1930’s Gas Station and road on one side and the darkly mysterious forest on the other, he thought his formative environment to be located exactly on the boundary between primal nature and the material longings of human enterprise. These contrasting forces, with their now ongoing and fragmenting role in our international experience, continue to occupy a central theme in his work and imagery.

Reif completed his BFA in 1968 at the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA at Yale University in 1970 and has been Professor of Art at the University of Michigan and Wyoming and Visiting Artist at numerous university institutions including Wisconsin, Northern Arizona, Houston and Colorado State. Reif is recipient of a National Endowment “Emerging Artist” Grant, The Pardee Award for Excellence in Sculpture at Yale University and “Best Sculpture” Award at the Joslyn 78 Biennial exhibition in Omaha. He has exhibited in galleries and museums in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago and universities throughout the country. Reif was member and Chair of the Wyoming arts Council, has been a juror for regional and national exhibitions and is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of Wyoming.

Background photos: Colorized images of different angles of cardboard prototype "Architecture of Civility" piece commissioned by Albany County for the grounds of the County Courthouse in Laramie, WY. Lighted at night from within and without, the final piece is constructed in color-coated, airplane-grade aluminum of approximately 7-8 feet in height. The piece will be colorful, not monochrome as the photos might suggest. To see the initial conceptual sketch and work-in-progress, see the link below to my Facebook page and click on photo albums.