Exhibition · Upper East Side
David Reed's "Terrible Idea" at Rodder on NYC's Upper East Side, Through Oct. 24
Rodder, the Upper East Side gallery, is showing David Reed's first exhibition with the space, Terrible Idea, through October 24. Working drawings with notes hang alongside recent paintings, showing the revisions and second thoughts behind five decades of process-driven abstraction.
By NBT Editors · 2026-10-21
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Rodder, the Upper East Side gallery, is showing David Reed: Terrible Idea through October 24. It is Reed's first exhibition with the gallery. Over more than five decades he has become a leading figure among process-based abstract painters, and this show puts the thinking behind the paintings on the wall.
The title comes from a note in one of the working drawings on view. The gallery stresses that these sheets are not preparatory sketches. They are process notes, color studies and compositional diagrams, written next to observations on daily life, emotional and sometimes self-critical reactions to new ideas, and references to history, literature, film and popular culture.
Color Study #11 (2018) shows how that plays out. According to The Brooklyn Rail's review, on August 25, 2012 Reed proposed glazing over the work, then answered himself in the margins with "NO" and "TERRIBLE IDEA." An entry from 2013 opens by saying he was glad he had not glazed it. Other sheets record an email exchange with a friend about a painting after Andrea del Sarto, and visits from fellow artists, so the drawings read as a record of conversation as much as solitary labor.
The finished paintings are mostly from the 2020s, among them #808 (2024–26) and #809 (2025–26), along with #804 and #805. They are oil and acrylic on polyester, according to the Rail and Hyperallergic. In the installation images, one canvas splits dark and light green under swirling orange-red strokes, and another pairs pink and orange on the left with a field of lime-yellow gesture. The Rail notes that the paintings are not matched one-to-one with the drawings.
Cultured reports that the show centers on the last decade of Reed's work while touching on his whole career, and that it was curated by Felix Rödder, who opened the gallery in 2025. It also quotes Reed saying he considers some of the drawings among his most important work.
Rodder is at 22 East 80th Street, Fifth Floor. The show closes October 24.
