Joseph Reich

I started out with art the same way most other people do - with middle school art classes. It meant nothing to me, only a grade. But when I moved back into a cramped Manhattan apartment - 375 sq ft. - I needed a way to de-stress. I found a cheap beginner artist's set and bought it on a whim.

My first canvas was almost entirely white. The armchair psychologist in me says it's because I wanted something freeing in that apartment. It was an interior design choice, and I made another. This one had more yellow, still mostly white though.

It wasn't minimalist, it was plain, but what mattered is that I felt unburdened, as if I had an extra 50 feet or so. So I filled my space with blank canvases and painted what felt free.

I studied Political Science at George Washington University in DC, then got Master's degrees in History and Public Affairs from Brown University.