Opening Sept. 3 at the Carnegie Museum of Art, “Wild Life: Elizabeth Murray & Jessi Reaves” will offer visitors a window into the worlds of two celebrated artists whose works complement each other, while defying conventional categorization.

“While Murray and Reaves were born 46 years apart, there are fascinating connections and overlapping themes in their practices. Both artists defy convention and resist categorization in any singular style,” said Eric Crosby, the museum’s Henry J. Heinz II director. “Instead, they both offer complex and ambiguous reflections on the human body and its relationship to domestic space.

“In some ways, I hope visitors will think of Reaves’ creations as three-dimensional extensions of Murray’s paintings. There is much to be discovered in their juxtaposition,” he said.

Painter Murray (1940-2007) belonged to a generation of artists who emerged in the 1970s and whose experimental work was inspired by Cubist-derived Minimalism and Surrealist-influenced Pop. She is best known for her monumental, fractured canvases depicting cartoonish, domestic scenes and still lifes.

Reaves (b. 1986) creates work that operates as both furniture and sculpture, employing “ripped, recombined, and reupholstered amalgamations of couches and chairs,” according to the museum.

Coming to Pittsburgh from the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, “Wild Life” includes Murray’s works from the 1960s to the 2000s, along with a selection of Reaves’ sculptural assemblages from the last seven years.

The exhibition will run through Jan 9. in the Heinz Galleries of the museum in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section.

“Positioning the two artists’ work together both reveals Murray’s lasting influence and historically contextualizes Reaves,” according to the museum.

The exhibition chronicles Murray’s “exploration of the medium and the domestic sphere through surrealism and abstraction, alongside a selection of Reaves’ sculptural assemblages. Reaves’ sculptures … blur the distinction between art and craft by reconfiguring and reupholstering furniture of noted designers such as Marcel Breuer and Isamu Noguchi,” Crosby said. “With Murray’s expansion of the canvas and Reaves’ hybrid forms, the exhibition playfully invites us to think beyond the formal, modernist conventions of both painting and sculpture.

“We’re excited to present this exhibition of works by Murray and Reaves at Carnegie Museum of Art, as we have collected works by both artists over the years as a result of their participation in past Carnegie Internationals,” Crosby said. “We hope that this exhibition will inspire new connections between the artists and encourage visitors to appreciate their work in a new light.”

Details: cmoa.org

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