Spencer Reinhard is a distinguished painter and mixed-media artist whose multilayered works expand upon the rich tradition of avian art. His pieces pay homage to masters like John James Audubon while simultaneously engaging with contemporary artistic expression.

“My work as a contemporary painter is rooted in personal transformation, shaped profoundly by a six-year period of incarceration in federal prison. During that time, I developed a highly technical ink transfer process—using gel medium to transfer imagery from magazines onto paper. The layered, translucent fragments that emerged became a way to explore the fractured nature of memory, identity, and time.

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This exhibition brings together work spanning from 2006, created while I was still incarcerated, to the present. It traces my ongoing effort to realize the full potential of those years and the lessons they offered, revealing how both my practice and perspective have evolved.

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The most recent series reinterprets John James Audubon’s Birds of America through a lens of confinement, resilience, and reclamation. Rendered first in acrylic, the birds are then layered with ink transfers, creating images that hover between the real and the fragmented, mirroring the disjointed experience of our contemporary social and technological environment. By working with Audubon’s legacy, I seek to transform a darker personal history with the artist into something fluid and creative: a reframing, a reconciliation, and, ultimately, a gesture toward redemption.”

– Spencer Reinhard 

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Spencer Reinhard’s attempted burglary of John James Audubon’s Birds of America is documented in the 2018 film American Animals.  Spencer Reinhard is an avid Birder and conservationist.  He lives with his wife and two children in Cali, Colombia.