Amsterdam, summer, 2023
"Every place that once seemed serene holds its share of hidden darkness."
—Tana French
Watercolor and ink on cotton rag
8 × 8 in
(20 × 20 cm)
signed on reverse
400 ea
Courtesy of a private collection, Paris
Self-portrait on Museumplein, Amsterdam
2024
“I’m telling you—that motherfucker is not real.”
—Tiffany Gomas
Digital mixed media and AI (Perchance)
2022
“Los Angeles is a city of infinite promises…”
—Raymond Chandler
Colored pencil
on tinted paper
11 x 14 in
(28 x 35.5 cm)
Originally exhibited at Paul Morris Gallery,
New York
All works courtesy of private collections
1994–present
The opposite of optimism isn’t pessimism, it’s despair.
Although I started the project with the intention of giving optimism away it has come back to me many times.
Collaborations and inquiries of all kinds are welcome.
Interview with Channel Thirteen
New York Times review by Roberta Smith
New York Times article by Michael Grynbaum
optimism MetroCard by Reed Seifer. Artwork commissioned by MTA Arts for Transit, 2009. Photo: Michael Valičić.
optimism buttons, LA edition, 2022.
optimism, 1995. Part of my senior thesis in at Clark University.
optimism buttons and magnets 1995–2019.
On the cover of the Metro section of the New York Times, November 19, 2009. Photo: Tanya Braganti.
On the homepage of the New York Times, November 19, 2009.
weathered optimism, 2015.
optimism t-shirt (2020) modeled by yours truly. Manhattan Beach, California, 2022.
As part of the exhibition Art in the Open: Fifty Years of Public Art in New York at the Museum of the City of New York admission stickers were swapped out for optimism, 2018. Photo: Julie Mente.
Gold optimism buttons, 2017. Photo: Tanya Braganti.
original optimism button, 1995.
Original optimism stickers, 1995.
Thank you to all the people who have contributed to this project. Special thanks to Clark University professors Sarah Buie, Elli Crocker, and Sarah Walker for their early support; Kaarin Lemstrom-Sheedy, who introduced the buttons at the Whitney Museum shop; Paul Moreno, who first gave one to her; Anne Pasternak and the CreativeTime team for their invaluable insights and connections; Sandra Bloodworth and MTA Arts and Design for fostering an experience of optimism that resonated with us; Amy Hausmann for overseeing the Metrocard's production; and Busy Beaver Buttons for providing complimentary buttons for special events; to my mother, who funded the first run of optimism buttons and my education, and to my father, who inspired the original story of optimism behind this project. This journey has been a profound opportunity to transform a personal experience into a global message of hope.
2017
“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.”
—Lao Tzu
Watercolor, gouache, rosewater, ink and salt on paper. Dimensions vary.
2016–17
“A mirror becomes a razor when it's broken. A stick becomes a flute when it's loved.” —Yoko Ono
Watercolor, gouache,
and ink on paper.
Dimensions vary.
Select work exhibited at When Language Meets Art, curated by Gary Sweeney, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center of the Arts, Lubbock, TX, 2016–17
2011
A signed and numbered
edition of one thousand
uniquely foil-stamped
dollar bills.
Photo: Paul Latham
Originally exhibited as an independent project at The Armory Show, 2011.
2017–18, 2021–22
When I was a kid I thought it would be fun to own a store called Colors. Maybe it was Colours. What if they were two stores side by side.
Watercolor and gouache
on paper,
dimensions vary.
courtesy private collections, Brooklyn and New Paltz, NY
2005–24
In 2010, following the presentation of my piece New York is a Lot of WorK at The Armory Show, ArtWrit magazine commissioned a new work from me.
Although I was compensated, the envisioned piece never materialized. The concept entailed an immersive performance for an ArtWrit benefit, featuring the "Artworld Sleaze" logo alongside the ArtWrit insignia on a step-and-repeat backdrop, as well as napkins and various ephemera for the event.
As I undertook a revision of my website and reexamined the original concept, I resolved to unveil it alongside a curated collection that reflects on my two-decade journey through some of the labyrinthine realms of "the Artworld."
2014–15
Watercolor on paper, dimensions vary
2012–15
Halite and alum crystals grown on currency
Photo: Duncan Morimoto Brown
Photo: Duncan Morimoto Brown
Photo: Duncan Morimoto Brown
Photo: Duncan Morimoto Brown
Exhibited at Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St Louis, MO; HERE Arts Center, New York; DC Moore Gallery, New York
2011
Site-specific installation and performance
ISCP, Brooklyn
as part of Behind the Real,
Curated by Necmi Sönmez
"Reed Seifer uses different conceptual strategies to create his enigmatic works, which illustrate the cycles of human life and the indomitable hope for transcendence inherently interwoven in a transformational journey. Seifer's work reflects upon the unusual lapis lazuli blue cobblestones he found in the courtyard of ISCP's building. These special cobblestones, also called as 'Aquinas', were most likely constructed from ships' ballast picked up in the Azores on the voyage to the New World starting in the 1600s for garden decoration. The artist further discovered that some of cobblestones have text on them, 'PA T'D JUNE 17 / 84,' inexplicably inscribed backwards. PAT'D, being an abbreviation for 'patented,' a term once used for ownership of property, leads the artist to propose these cobblestones may date from the transference of Bushwick from the Dutch to the English in 1683. Seifer personally removed one of the most beautiful cobblestones from the courtyard, placed it in the gallery and filled the hole with different sized Herkimer diamonds. Viewers are invited to take one of these diamonds if they wish." —Necmi Sönmez
2018
"The sun was sinking low in the sky, and the wind was cold. The prairie was wide and flat, but it felt like the whole world was closing in on me. I could see nothing but the empty land stretching away in every direction, and it made me feel so small, so alone."
—Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie
Digital mixed media
“An Interview with Artist Reed Seifer.” Walnut Grove Podcast
The Armory Show, New York, 2010
with Minda Glynn
Spray to Forget is a conceptual and functional product based on the possibility that "a substrate to physical reality exists, and that it can be deterministically altered and influenced by human intention." —Duncan Laurie, The Secret Art
A signed and numbered edition of 500.
Photo by Spencer Platt
