Lily Reeves Mongtomery

City of Chandler — Regular Meeting (2022-01-18)

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My name is Lily Reeves, and I am a multi-media artist working in the medium of light 
and energy. I am originally from Birmingham, Alabama, but have been in the Phoenix valley for 
5 years. I came here to obtain my masters in sculpture from ASU, and I stayed because of the 
natural beauty of the Southwest. I am constantly in awe of the ways that light moves across the 
deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, and how it plays with the senses when perceiving things 
like distance, or color, or surroundings- the foundations of our reality, moving like sand in a hot 
wind, revealing the things we think we know to be only mirages in the distance. In Phoenix, I 
work as both an Artist and Designer, and I run my Art and Design studio, Reeves Studios, Full 
time. 
 
 In my conceptual artwork, I utilize audience-participatory performance, immersive 
installations, art in the public sphere, and collaboration to evoke emotional well-being in those 
that view my work. I often address the spiritual chasms left from the destructive tendencies of 
capitalism; a damaged relationship to the land and a lost connection with our psyches, which in 
turn has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem, the individual, and the collective consciousness. My 
sculptures, installations, and performances incorporate magical realism and the supernatural to 
holistically explore ideas surrounding personal, societal, and environmental healing. 
 
I have been awarded public commissions from Scottsdale Public Art, Art on the Atlanta 
Beltline, the City of Atlanta, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Bonnaroo Public Art Commission, 
as well as a long list of private commissions for residential and commercial endeavors.  For 
INFLUX cycle 10, I am proposing to fund a new series of work titled ‘Wayfinding’. This project is 
a public intervention in the form of commercial text-based LED signage. Wayfinding is a series 
of five large exterior signs that mimic signage we see every day that is meant to advertise to us; 
Starbucks blade signs, ‘beer, lottery, wine’ advertisements, and massive sign stacks of corporate 
brands; Walmart, Home Depot, dd’s discount, illuminated to pull you in from the roadside. 
These are monuments to contemporary life: totems empty of meaning, but lit up like beacons, 
pulling you in to purchase some object to make you forget that you are caught in a never-
ending cycle of consumerism on which our society is measured.  
 
Wayfinding utilizes the same aesthetics as these relentless tools of capitalism, but 
instead of selling you something, offers poetry and public affirmations, meant to reaffirm your 
existence as a human with thoughts and feelings in the world, and not a tool to measure the 
GDP. Phrases like “You are on the right path, and move with ease, joy, and grace” will be lit like 
a marquee, empowering those who walk by, instead of exploiting them.  Phrases like “Today 
you are grateful. Today you are honest and kind. Today you are present in this space.” Will 
shine through colored and mirrored acrylic, an affirmation of our existence in spaces meant to 
deafen and dumb us. Wayfinding signage will be self-illuminated by solar LED lights, and will be 
can be easily installed onto any mural wall location; any of the Peoria, Scottsdale, or Tempe 
mural wall locations will work, as these signs would not require any electrical routed from a 
building. Wayfinding counteracts the relentless acts of capitalism that tear at the fabric of our 
humanity; they reclaim public space for the enjoyment, and not the exploitation, of the public, 
and most importantly, they will lift the moods and spirits of those who read them by offering 
encouragement and kindness in a world that is becoming increasingly inhuman.

List of Works  
 
1. Color Garden 
Lily Reeves, 2019  
Argon filled glass, aluminum, plexiglass, hardware  
48’ in length, 8’ at highest point 
Public Art commissioned by Art on the Beltline and the City of Atlanta  
 
2. Quasar 
Lily Reeves, 2018 
Steel, solar powered LEDs, acrylic 
13’ at highest point, 4’ x 4’ plinth base  
Public Art commissioned by Scottsdale Public Art 
 
3. Deep Space Mirrors  
Lily Reeves, 2020 
Aluminum, plexiglass mirror, argon filled glass, sand, hardware  
Large: 5’ x 5’ x 15’’ Small: 4’ x 4’ x 9’’  
Sculptures created for Outer Special, the two-person exhibition of Lily Reeves and Lucia Riffel at Urban 
Glass Gallery, Brooklyn, NY  
 
4. Revival 
Lily Reeves, 2018 
Salt Circle, fabric, steel, LED lights, central oasis, healer, floral bath, sound healing instruments, audience 
volunteers  
26’ exterior circumference, 9’ interior circumference  
 
5. Radial,  
Lily Reeves, 2021 
Moss wall, neon lights, hardware 
8’ diameter 
Commissioned by a private client  
 
6. Wayfinding  
Lily Reeves, 2021 
One of 5 signs, Size varies from 3’ x 3’ to 5’ x 4’  
Computer drawing

LILY REEVES
ARTIST & DESIGNER 
PROFILE 
2021 
Forever Becoming Scottsdale Museum of Cont. Art | Scottsdale, AZ   
Nomad Torrance Art Museum | Torrance, CA    
Collective Memory Alzheimer’s glass and Iron | Virtual Exhibition 
2020 
Memory and the Chromatisphere  Mood Room Gallery  | Phoenix, AZ   
Light Keepers S12 Gallery  | Bergen, Norway   
She Bends Loveland Museum | Loveland, CO    
2019 
Futura, ShowerHaus Gallery  | Atlanta, GA   
From the Artists Collection, MINT Gallery  | Atlanta, GA   
Land Art 1969-2019, LBIF Gallery | Long Beach Island, NJ  
NOVA prize exhibition, HRY Gallery  | NYC, NY  
She Bends III, Var West Gallery  | Milwaukee, WI  
Immersion, Brea Gallery  | Orange County, CA 
2018 
Local Light, Scottsdale Public Art  | Scottsdale, AZ 
Gala Exhibition, Phoenix Museum of Art  | Phoenix, AZ 
Arizona Biennial Tucson Museum of Art  | Tucson, AZ 
Specular Sounds LUMP Gallery  | Raleigh, NC  
She Bends II The Midway Gallery  | San Francisco,  CA 
 
SELECT GROUP 
EXHIBITIONS 
Contact 
SELECT SOLO AND TWO -
PERSON   EXHIBITIONS 
2 0 5 . 9 3 6 . 1 0 8 6  
Reeves@Lilyreeves.com 
Phoenix, AZ  
Lilyreeves.com 
 
 
2015-2018 
MFA, Sculpture 
Arizona State University 
 
 
2012-2015 
BFA, Sculpture 
Alfred University  
 
 
2022 
Between Futures- Abrams-Engles Institute for the Visual Arts| Birmingham, AL    
2020 
Outer Special- Urban Glass Robert Lehman Gallery | Brooklyn, NY   
2018 
A Thousand Years of Tomorrow Powerhouse Gallery, Sloss Furnaces | Birmingham, AL  
AURORA ASU Step Gallery | Phoenix, AZ 
Southern Static Elsewhere Museum of Art | Greensboro, NC 
2018-PRESENT 
Owner, Reeves Studios

RESIDENCIES  
Wiregrass Museum of Art Artist in Residence | 2020 
Dothan, AL  
Visiting Artist/ Scholar, Alfred University  | 2019 
Alfred, NY  
Sloss Furnaces Artist in Residence | 2019 
Birmingham, AL  
Takoja Institute Artist in Residence | 2018 
Questa, NM 
Elsewhere Museum Artist in Residence | 2017 
Greensboro, NC 
Franconia Sculpture Park Intern Artist | 2016 
Shaffer, MN  
Salem Art Works Independent Artist in Residence  | 2013 
Salem, NY  
2 0 5 . 9 3 6 . 1 0 8 6  
Reeves@lilyreeves.com 
Phoenix, AZ  
Lilyreeves.com 
 
LECTURES 
and curated  
exhibitions  
Museum of Neon Art Artist lecture | Los Angeles, CA | 2021 
Alfred University Visiting lecturer | Alfred, NY | 2021 
UAB AEIVA Artist Lecture | Birmingham, AL | 2020 
Arizona State University Artist Lecture | Flagstaff, AZ | 2018 
GOOD WONDER Gallery 100  | Tempe, AZ | 2017 
Heroes and Villains IDEA Museum  | Mesa, AZ | 2017 
That NEW Unexpected Art Gallery  | Phoenix, AZ | 2017 
It’s Like That But Not Really Casket Arts Complex  | Minneapolis, MN | 2016 
Thinning of the Veil Step Gallery  | Phoenix, AZ | 2015 
Mise-en-Scene Turner Gallery  | Alfred, NY | 2014 
2017 
Light Charmer Houston Center for Contemporary Craft | Houston, TX  
She Bends Museum of Neon Art | Los Angeles, CA  
MOMENTUM Ohio Arts Commission River House Arts Gallery  | Toledo, OH  
Digital Divide Hambridge Creative Hive  | Atlanta, GA 
2016 
Walking, Thinking, Walking Again ASU Museum Project Space | Phoenix, AZ 
Energy Charge: Connecting to Ana Mendieta ASU Art Museum | Tempe, AZ 
Hot City Lights Eleventh Monkey Gallery | Phoenix, AZ 
The Thinning of the Veil Step Gallery  | Phoenix, AZ 
Parables of the Virtual Fine Arts Complex  1101 | Tempe, AZ 
It’s Like That But Not Really Casket Arts Gallery | Minneapolis, MN 
Aesthetic Alchemy |Shemer Arts Center  | 2016|Phoenix, AZ 
 
CONTACT 
EXHIBITIONS 
CON’T

ACHIEVEMENTS  
AND AWARDS 
Artist pARTnership Grant | 2019-2020 
Public art commission with the city of Atlanta and the Atlanta Beltline, Inc 
 
Saxe Emerging Artist Award, Glass Art Society | 2019 
Award emerging artists from the Glass Art Society 
 
NOVA Prize for Emerging Artists, FRESCO Foundation | 2019 
Award for work as an emerging artist  
 
Bonnaroo Public Art, Public Art Commission | 2019 
Grant for installation of public art for Bonnaroo Fund 
 
Art on the Atlanta Beltline, Public Art Commission | 2018 
Grant for installation of public art   
 
Graduate Completion Fellowship, ASU Graduate College| 2018 
Prestigious award for completion of Master’s thesis 
 
Graduate Studies Research Grant, ASU School of Art and Design | 2017 
Project based Grant for professional development 
 
Professional Development Grant, Arizona Commission on the Arts  | 2017 
Project based Grant for attending a residency  
 
PLATFORM sculpture commission, Scottsdale Public Art  | 2016 
Project based Grant to loan a public work of art  
 
Penland School of Crafts, Dr. Jerid Bellitz Scholarship | 2016 
Full scholarship to study with Joana Manousis, in her class Contrasting 
Methods in Glass Casting 
 
Special Talent Scholarship, Arizona State University | 2015-present 
Scholarship to support Graduate Studies 
 
Deans Scholarship, Alfred University | 2012-2015 
Highest ranking scholarship for undergraduate BFA student  
 
Corning Museum of Glass and Alfred University Partner Scholarship  | 2014 
Grant for Scholarship Class at Corning Museum of Glass 
2 0 5 . 9 3 6 . 1 0 8 6  
Reeves@lilyreeves.com 
Phoenix, AZ  
Lilyreeves.com 
 
PUBLICATIONS 
IN PRINT  
CONTACT 
 
 
Glass Art Society Journal 2019 
Article for SAXE Emerging Artist  
 
Phoenix Magazine 2020 
Artist Interview feature  
 
Art and Money, Print Catalogue   | 2017 
Artist Feature for exhibition catlogue  
 
New Glass Review, Issue 35  | 2016 
Jury- selected publication, with excerpt by Tina Oldknow