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It’s not often that you meet an artist whose personal story is as inspiring as his work.
However, you'll have the chance to encounter such a talent if you check out Within Reach: New Works by Andrew Reach, the latest exhibit at Tregoning & Co.
“The works on view are my outlet, my release,” Reach said while giving me a preview of the show from his Detroit Shoreway home.
While sifting through dozens of large-format digital prints — some up to 90 inches long — he and his partner of 28 years, Bruce Baumwoll, told me his story.
“I was working as an architect in Florida,” Reach said. He was successful, and the left-brain, right-brain nature of architecture was perfect for his creative yet meticulous demeanor. “That’s when my illness began to progress” he said.
Reach has a disease of the spine known as Scheuermann’s kyphosis, a form of scoliosis in which the spine curves forward. About five years ago, his curvature worsened to the point that his internal organs were being impacted. After an initial surgery he developed a rare complication called spondylolisthesis in which the head began to detach itself from the spine. This required another complex, exhaustive surgery to pull the spine back into alignment. Complicating the matter was the fact that Reach is severely allergic to a number of pain medications, making respite and relief hard for him to imagine, much less find.
 The resulting hospital stay was difficult. Feeling marooned while lying in a hospital bed and falling into despair, Reach needed some sort of release — an outlet to express what was going through his mind.
“I’ve always been creative,” he said. “Not being able to create was terrible.”
That’s when Baumwoll, his partner, encouraged him to try to create art on his computer during the limited time he could sit upright. Reach bought a copy of Photoshop for Dummies and started experimenting with his computer. He soon discovered both an outlet for his pent-up creativity and a method for telling his story.
And his friends discovered that the former architect was a powerful artist.
His experimentation led to the creation of one series of prints, and then another, and then another. Eventually, gallery offers came flooding in, and before he knew it, his art was featured in solo and international juried exhibitions in Miami, New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
Many of Reach’s digital works reference his body, including vertebrae, cells and connective tissue, which he cites as the source of the debilitating pain he experiences each day. Don’t let the subject matter fool you, however; his works are far from medical-textbook illustrations. Rather, he creates patterns of aspects of the body, some so subtle that at first, you might not realize you’re looking a row of spinal columns. Through the use of vivid color, symmetry and collage techniques, Reach transforms symbols of his experience into moving, high-energy images that entrance the viewer.
 Reach doesn’t limit himself to biology for his works' inspiration. Many of his interests, from modern art to Eastern traditions — including Buddhist Mandalas, Sufi Whirling Dervishes, Islamic patterns and African art — are present in his work. These influences are most evident in his pieces that feature characters he calls “whimsies” — fun, bouncy figures that represent his desire to be free and unrestricted by his or anyone’s limitations.
Reach has created legions of prints even though he is usually only able to work for about an hour and a half before stopping to rest.
“It literally hurts me to work,” he said. “But it’s worth it. I have a hyperactive imagination and a lot of time on my hands.”
Reach's talents, which legitimize the fledgling discipline of digital art, will be on display during his first local exhibition, which opens at Tregoning and Co. this Friday, from 6 to 9 p.m.
It gives new meaning to the phrase “body of work.”
The Details
Within Reach: New Works by Andrew Reach
Opening party: Friday, Oct. 10, 6 – 9 p.m.
The show runs through Nov. 15.
Tregoning and Co.
1300 W. 78th St., Cleveland.
Learn more about Reach at andrewreach.com.
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