Born 1988, Sydney
Lives and works, Sydney
JD Reforma is an artist, writer and curator. Across these practices he employs collage and quotation broadly, recontextualising elements of contemporary visual culture – pop music, film, fashion, celebrity, media and advertising – to articulate their influence on our personal, political and emotional topographies. His work spans video, sculpture, performance, and installation, and often reveals the inequities of race and class that intersect across our relations, cultures, institutions, and society.
Over the last 10 years he has presented extensively across Australia, and has been commissioned for major projects and exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Casula Powerhouse, and Cement Fondu. He has been a finalist in major prizes including the 2013, 2018, and 2019 NSW Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), the Blake Prize, the John Fries Art Award, and most recently the 2023 Ramsay Art Prize.
Recent exhibitions include Dreamhome: Stories of Art and Shelter, curated by Justin Paton and Lisa Catt, Art Gallery of NSW; Like A Wheel That Turns: The 2022 Macfarlane Commissions, curated by Max Delany and Annika Kristensen, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Free/State, the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, curated by Sebastian Goldspink, Art Gallery of South Australia; the 67th Blake Prize, Casula Powerhouse; the 2020 John Fries Award, curated by Miriam Kelly, UNSW Galleries; Acid Mantle, COMA, Sydney; Hyper-linked, 2020, curated by Isobel Parker Philip, Art Gallery of New South Wales; HI-VIS, 2020, curated by Luke Letourneau, Casula Powerhouse; Don’t Let Yourself Go, 2020, curated by Megan Monte and Josephine Skinner, Cement Fondu, Sydney; and Collective Trace, 2020, curated by Anna May Kirk, Sophie Penkethman-Young and Nerida Ross, PACT, Sydney.
Other key exhibitions and commissions include The Fullness of Time, 2019, with Caroline Garcia, Verge, University of Sydney; No Righteous Left Among The Living, 2019, COMA, Sydney; Spring 1883, 2019, Cement Fondu, The Establishment, Sydney; Do You Know This Feeling?, curated by Sebastian Henry-Jones, Firstdraft, Sydney; The TV Show, 2018, curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Wollongong Art Gallery; Confidently Beautiful, with a heart, for Halò: Bayanihan Philippine Art Project, 2017, curated by Katrina Cashman, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, which was also exhibited as part of Club Ate, curated by Bhenji Ra and Justin Shoulder, Blacktown Arts Centre; Coconut Republic, 2017, which was awarded the Contemporary Prize at the 2017 Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre; and 48HR Incident, 2015, curated by Aaron Seeto, Pedro De Almeida and Toby Chapman, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney.
His work has been extensively profiled by The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Broadsheet Sydney, Art Collector Magazine, Artlink, RUSSH Magazine, Running Dog and Runway Journal. He was a 2020 City of Sydney Live/Work Space Artist; a 2019/20 Resident Artist at The Clothing Store, Carriageworks; a recipient of the 2018 4A Beijing Studio, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art; and is currently a 2023 Waverley Artists Studios resident. His work is held in various private collections and by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
He is currently a member of the City of Sydney Cultural and Creative Sector Advisory Panel, and a member of the Board of Directors of Art Month Sydney.
