Roland Reiss (1929 - 2020) had an influential history in the L.A. and Southern California art scene. His continual self-reinvention led to a groundbreaking body of work. He described his work as “energy fields and spaces in which colors and forms generate expressive visual experience.”
Reiss showed at Cirrus Gallery for a number of years before joining Ace Gallery. At Ace he had numerous one-person shows over the period of fourteen years, during which time that gallery represented him exclusively. He has shown at documenta in Kassel, Germany and at the Whitney Biennial Exhibition. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art he has had a one-person show and an extensive retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.
Reiss studied at the American Academy of Art, Mount San Antonio College and at UCLA. He taught at UCLA, the University of Colorado, and Claremont Graduate University. In 2009 he received the College Art Association Award for the Distinguished Teaching of Art. At CGU he held the Benezet Chair in the Humanities and in 2010 an endowed chair in art was established in his name. He was also the director of The Painting's Edge residency at Idyllwild Arts.
Major Solo Exhibitions: Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA; Calgary Museum, Calagary, Canada; Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA; Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY; Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA; Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA; Riverside Museum of Art, Riverside, CA; Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Canada; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; Amarillo College, Amarillo, TX; California State Universities: Berkley, Chico, Channel Islands, Fullerton, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego, Stanislaus; Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA; Fullerton College, Fullerton, CA; University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ; University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY; and University of La Verne, La Verne, CA.
Major Group Exhibitions: documenta, Kassel, Germany; The Whitney Biennial, New York, NY; Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Andi Campognone Projects, Pomona, CA; Art Space, San Francisco, CA; California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita, CA; Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; Ducal Palace, Urbino, Italy; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Kyoto National Museum, Kyoto, Japan; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Minsk, Belarus; Mulvane Art Center, Topeka, KS; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas, MO; Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA; Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, CA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Riverside Museum of Art, Riverside, CA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; Santa Monica Art Museum, Santa Monica, CA; Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Karuizawa, Japan; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA; UC Irvine, Irvine, CA; UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA; Wight Gallery, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; and William Turner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
Reiss was the recipient of four N.E.A. grants and of numerous prizes and awards. His work is included in many public, corporate, and private collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
An oral interview may be found at the Smithsonian. Videos may be seen of Roland Reiss on Youtube.