“[Reed Seifer’s work] has the power to change and not just reflect what is.” —The Daily Kos

Reed Seifer is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist and author whose work delves into the intersections of language, design, and human experience. Seifer’s contributions include one of the world’s largest public art projects. In collaboration with New York’s MTA Arts and Design, the word “optimism” was featured on over 14 million Metrocards, making a powerful, quiet, controversial statement across the city.

Public collections:
Museum of the City of New York
Skissernas Museum, Lund, Sweden
Clark University, Worcester, MA
New York Transit Museum, Brooklyn
Yivo Institute, New York
Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
Dalat Universuty, Lâm Dong, Vietnam

Solo exhibitions
2024
Thé après le déluge, online exhibition
Was This a Catharis, online exhibition
2022
Reed Seifer & the Angels, Paul Morris Gallery, New York and Hillsdale, NY
2019
Some Performance Necessary (Hurt People Hurt People), Machamux Gallery, Westport, CT
2018
I Found Optimism, Museum of the City of New York
2017
Memory Marketplace, Machamux Gallery, Westport, CT
Optimism, Tribeca Center for the Performing Arts, New York
2016
The Opposite of Guilt, Machamux Gallery, Westport, CT
2014
msimitpo, Clark University, Worcester, MA
2011
New York is a Lot of Work, The Armory Show, New York
A Space to Hold Your Thoughts in, Art Platform, Los Angeles
2010
Spray to Forget, The Armory Show
2009
Optimism Metrocard, MTA Arts & Design
2003
Security Blankets, Go Fish Gallery, New York
Reed Seifer, Works on Paper, Domus, New York
2001
Reed for Pleasure, online exhibition

Selected group exhibitions
2019
Mediums of Exchange, Lehman College Art Gallery, CUNY, New York (catalogue)
Time Flies like an Arrow, Fruit Flies like a Banana: Dunan Morimoto Brown, Alyce Santoro, and Reed Seifer Machamux Gallery, Westport, CT
2015
Alchemy, curated by Priscilla Vail Caldwell, DC Moore Gallery, New York
The Season of Spring, Flower Pepper Gallery, Pasadena, CA
Alchemical, curated by Nick Vaughan, HERE, New York
Currency x-change, curated by Tom Lang and Jeffrey Hughes, Hunt Gallery, Webster University, St. Louis, MO
2012
Wars of Words, Curated by Diane Bertolo, Proetus Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY, 2012
2011
In back of the real, Curated by Necmi Sönmez, ICSP, Brooklyn
Oh Crisis!, Curated by Nathanja van Dijk, Huize Frankendael, Amsterdam
2008
Innovative Forms, A Curated Exhibition at the Research Room, Printed Matter, New York, 2008
2004
Do What You Are in The Mood for “After Dark,” 1973, site-specific installation, Cleo’s Ninth Avenue, Hell’s Kitchen, New York
2002
Art After Clark, Clark University Gallery, Worcester, MA (catalogue)
1996
Elements and Story, Atelier 14, New York
1995
15 Minutes, Clark University Gallery, Worcester, MA

Curatorial Work
2022
Nell Dorr, Only Beauty Remains, Westport Museum for History and Culture, Westport, CT, 2022
2019
Gertude Kasebier, Camera Box for Heart, Portraits of Native Americans from the Library of Congress Collection, Machamux Gallery, Westport, CT

site, artwork, text © Reed Seifer 2024