Dany Reede’s paintings are anxiety and depression on canvas.

“My art making is just a therapeutic way of dealing with that,” Reede says. But he doesn’t necessarily want others to interpret his work a specific way.

“I think, especially for my work, it’s important for people to take away what they want from it because I don’t really have anything academic to say about it. It’s just kind of simple, simple art,” Reede says. 

He’s heard different responses from people to his art.

“That’s important to me that people are able to take away from it what they want,” he says.

Busy with other work, Reede has not had a solo show in a few years. That will change on Sept. 17.

Last year, Reede was approached by Pat Lazo, artistic director of Graffiti Art Programming, to exhibit at the gallery this fall.

“I’ve been following Dany’s work for quite a few years,” Lazo says, adding that Reede didn’t follow the rules of the graffiti world and liked that.

His work is also accessible to children, so Lazo decided to invite Reede to have his own exhibit, titled Past Conduits.

Reede has prepared more than 700 pieces for the gallery. Sizes vary from small paintings to six foot canvases.

While all of Reede’s work is fuelled by mental health, he says he took a more playful approach with this set of paintings, which have images of toys and other objects from his childhood.

“There’s lots of chairs in my pieces based off the old living room chairs where you have the metal bars that rounded off at the edge and then you have the padded back or something. Just something really tacky and cheesy and kitschy,” Reede says.

“Something about it feels like home.”

Reede will also be painting a mural on the side of Hunter & Gunn (567 Broadway). The last mural he created was painted over, so he’s taking extra precautions this time to make sure it’s exactly what the business owners want.

“It’ll get approval first,” Reede says. “I might use a projector just for consistency. Just because they did approve the design and I want it to be perfect so they don’t really have a reason to hate it.”

In conjunction with Reede’s exhibit, Graffiti Art Programming is running zine making workshops that can be booked through them. The workshops include a half hour tour of the gallery followed by an hour long workshop.

All artwork at the gallery will be for sale, as well as T-shirts, zines and patches. Reede also plans to have a photo booth at the opening.

Published in Volume 70, Number 2 of The Uniter (September 17, 2015)