Bill Reis

Multi media Artist

Artist Statement / Artist Bio

Bill Reis is a dynamic artist known for pushing the boundaries of painting and drawing through his use of vibrant color, textured surfaces, and a variety of materials. His work invites viewers into a rich, immersive visual experience. He has exhibited widely throughout the United States, Argentina, and the United Kingdom, with both solo and group shows.

Reis has received numerous awards, including recognition from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and has shown work at prestigious institutions such as the Newport Art Museum and the Southwest State University. He was also awarded a fellowship in painting from Skidmore College in Saratoga, NY. His pieces are part of the permanent collections at the Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, and he has worked on projects with organizations like IBM, the Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, and many others.

Dedicated to arts education, Reis has taught all levels of art, from high school at Auburn High School in Massachusetts to college-level instruction at Salve Regina University and Providence College in Rhode Island, as well as Cooper Union College of Art in New York City. Many of his students have gone on to successful artistic careers.

His public commissions include a large-scale painting of the 100-year-old interior ceiling dome for the Central Falls Library in RI). He was also selected to curate the glass exhibition of Dale Chihuly and Howard Ben Tre for the Newport Art Museum.

Bill Reis’s artwork has been shown in respected galleries including the former Dome Gallery NYC, The Lenore Gray Gallery in Providence, and the Hope Gallery in Bristol, RI. He holds both a BFA from Providence College and a Master’s degree in art from the Rhode Island School of Design.

About Bill Reis​

 A graduate of Providence College and Rhode Island School of Design, he also received a painting fellowship from Skidmore College. His paintings have been exhibited throughout the U.S. and are in many private and corporate collections.

Selected Exhibitions:

  • Jamestown Art Center, Jamestown Art Center, Jamestown, RI

  • South County Art Association, Kingston, RI

  • McKillop Gallery, Salve Regina University, Newport, RI

  • Veterans Art Museum, Chicago IL

  • William Whipple Gallery, S.W. State University, Marshall, MN

  • Venado Tuerto, Traveling Exhibit, Argentina, SA

  • University of Wales Institute, Cardiff Wales, UK

  • Robertson Gallery, New York, NY

  • Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI

  • Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, RI

  • Warwick Museum, Warwick, RI

  • Providence College, Providence, RI

  • Provincetown Art Museum, Provincetown, MA

  • Dome Gallery, New York, NY

  • J.B.Speed Museum, Louisville, KY

  • Limner Gallery, New York, NY

  • Springfield Art Association, Springfield, IL

  • Rhode Island School of Design, Woods Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI

  • Lincoln Center, New York, NY

  • Bristol Art Museum (Arte Corajosa), Bristol, RI

Selected Awards:

  • Southwest State University

  • Ucross Foundation

  • Wickford Art Association

  • Rhode Island Council of the Arts Fellowship/Grant

  • Newport Art Museum

  • Community College of Rhode Island

  • Polaroid Foundation

  • Skidmore College, Saratoga, NY, Fellowship/Grant

 Selected Teaching:

  • Salve Regina University, Newport, RI

  • Cooper Union School of Art, New York, NY

  • Providence College, Providence, RI

  • Auburn High School, Auburn, MA

Reviews

​"Reis' studied divided and segmenting of canvases is mainly an exploration of two-dimensional proportional systems.  Moreover, Reis' concerns are those of a painter; his strength lies in his skills as colorist and composer.  His savvy balancing and measuring of simple elements and fields of color that in less skilled hands could appear simplistic. His disciplined approach is refreshingly rigorous."
Review by Lois E. Nesbit, Art Forum International

"As a foil to this weave of  brushwork and softness of contour, Reis creates a highly controlled and geometrical simplified background that holds the composition in check.  Nowhere, however, is the artist's technical virtuosity more apparent then in his use of color.  Reis combines the most subtle shifts of hue with dramatic tonal contrasts, all the while employing arrange of color that is faultlessly and effortlessly beautiful."
Review by Deborah Johnson, former Curator of Prints and Drawings RISD Museum;
Currently Professor of Art History, Providence College

"Interchanges form agones among the shapes, colors and composition, building tensions upon tensions.  The mood strikes a nerve with an undercurrent of frenetic energy different from calming expanses seen heretofore and yet thrilling to behold."
Review by Beth S. Gersh-Nesic, Art New England

​Bill Reis’ oil painting “Barrow of the Undiscovered” is a much darker unearthing, and invitingly mysterious in its execution. By Alexander Castro, Newport Mercury

 

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