Shana Nys Dambrot
Visitors to the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living are greeted in the expanded lobby by the extraordinary site-specific monumental painting Paradise Lost—a masterpiece of modern muralism by painter Devin Reynolds. Its orchestration of strong, delicate lines, interlocking pictorial planes, shifting visual styles, symphonic blues, and the expressive architectures of urban surrealism sets an example of how the personal and historical intersect in the biennial exhibition’s total ethos. Reynolds’ use of pointed texts offers commentary on and references to impactful events amid this vibrant collision of perspectives and narratives. The reality and fantasy of the whole reflects the character of life in Los Angeles, with all its inherent contradictions, cultural influences, contested histories, soft skies and hard edges, joys and beauties.
Devin Reynolds: Paradise Lost. Installation view, Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum (Photo: Joshua White)
L.A. WEEKLY: When did you first know you were an artist?
DEVIN REYNOLDS: Standing in the train yard, screaming and crying in the rain so no one could hear me.
What is your short answer to people who ask what your work is about?
I’m still trying to figure this out myself, but at the moment it’s a lot about the color blue. The world feels extra blue these days, constantly changing; maybe that’s what is an obsession with nostalgia and storytelling as resistance to change.
What would you be doing if you weren’t an artist?
I’d be 40 miles out to sea, listening to Bell Witch watching the sun come up through the fog, getting ready to sink a gaff in my homie’s yellowtail.
Devin Reynolds: Paradise Lost. Installation view, Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum (Photo: Joshua White)
Did you go to art school? Why/Why not?
I thought I was going to be 32 with a froggy voice, chain smoking and drinking coffee on a fishing boat, and then art found me.
Why do you live and work in L.A., and not elsewhere?
I was living most of the year in New Orleans for 10 years or so and moved back to L.A. during the pandemic, mid-2020. I had more work-related opportunities and wanted to be back home.
When was your first show?
2014 or so, tabling at the art market?
When is/was your current/most recent/next show or project?
My newest project is up right now at the Hammer Museum.
What artist living or dead would you most like to show or work with?
A 2-person show with Kerry James Marshall.
Devin Reynolds: Paradise Lost. Installation view, Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum (Photo: Joshua White)
Do you listen to music while you work? If so, what?
That’s all I do! I have been listening to: P.S.D., Messy Marv & Keak Da Sneak (Burdens of His Youth), Ragana (Pain), Hugh Augustine (Family/unreleased stuff), Grief (Isolation), Bell Witch (Mirror Reaper), Future (Temptation), OM (At Giza), French for Rabbits (Claimed by the Sea), Lil Peep (Hellboy), J. Stone (Soul Search), Title Fight (Safe in Your Skin), Bess Atwell (Nobody), Miserable (Damned to Love You), Laura Stevenson (Value Inn), The Murder City Devils (Midnight Service At The Mütter Museum), Psychi (SHRETTR), Slomosa (Estonia), Larry June (Corte Madera, CA / Another Day, pt. 2).
Web and socials:
IG @devinreynolds
Devin Reynolds: Hanging on by a Thread. Installation view at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in 2021
Devin Reynolds
/Editor’s note: The disclaimer below refers to advertising posts and does not apply to this or any other editorial stories.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.