Lucas Reiner

Additionally, his work has been included in numerous group shows, including “Left Coast. Recent Acquisitions of Contemporary Art” at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art(2014), “Drawn” at Galerie Nordenhake Berlin (2014), Ace Gallery Beverly Hills (2013), “Landscape and Architecture” at Irvine Fine Arts Center (2012) and “Speak for the Trees” at Friesen Gallery in Seattle and Sun Valley.

In addition to having taught at Art Division (2011) and at Otis College of Art and Design (2007), Reiner has been a visiting artist at numerous institutions, including the American Academy in Rome, California State University, Northridge, Oberlin College, Myers School of Art, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, and Università Iuav di Venezia.

In 2009, Prestel Publishing published ‘’Lucas Reiner: Los Angeles Trees, 2001-2008: Paintings, Drawings, Filmstills’’ by Petra Giloy-Hirtz, with an essay by Fred Dewey. In this book, Dewey compares Reiner’s process to the “old monk poet Basho, who, it was said, would go into the mountains to pay tribute to specific trees,” though of course Reiner typically approaches trees via car. "Cut for instrumental reasons according to non-arboreal, non-natural intent, the trees nonetheless retain their nature, responding to heat, light, and soil, but most of all the ferocious Department of Transportation." "The result is quiet, calling for contemplation, and, in a final move, hints at the story and mystery behind the shape."

After spending time in the Michigan forests in 2001, Reiner started to focus on the trees in his Los Angeles environment. Responding to the way urban trees are routinely brutalized by trucks, sidewalks, and neglectful passersby, Reiner started creating little tree portraits. Fred Dewey wonders why it took contemporary artists so long to address suffering city trees, since Frederick Law Olmsted noticed the savage cutting of trees around 1870.

Since 1985, Reiner has exhibited internationally in Los Angeles, Milan, Munich, New York City, Regensberg, Rome and Schwarzenbruck. He has had solo exhibitions with Bennett Roberts, Los Angeles, CA (1995); Tricia Collins Grand Salon (1996); Griffin Contemporary (1998), Tricia Collins Contemporary Art, New York, NY ( 1999); Pocket Utopia, Brooklyn, NY (2007); Roberts & Tilton (2003) Carl Berg Gallery, Los Angeles (2005); Pocket Utopia, Brooklyn, NY (2007); Galerie Biedermann (2008, 2012, 2017), and [www.galleriatraghettio.it Galleria Traghetto](2010).

The third child of Estelle and Carl Reiner, Lucas Reiner was born and grew up in Los Angeles. Raised in a family of creatives, his paternal grandfather designed a precious timepiece for Emperor Franz Joseph before immigrating from Czernowitz to New York City. Between 1978 and 1986, Reiner studied fine art at Parsons School of Design, Otis Art Institute and Parsons School of Design Paris.

Lucas Joseph Reiner (born August 17, 1960), is an American painter, print maker, and photographer. He is married to Maud Winchester and works between Los Angeles and Berlin.