Bio
Doug Reina is a two time Pollock-Krasner grant recipient whose studio is in Setauket, New York.


Reina is a full-time artist who creates paintings both on location, as well as in his studio of the unique landscapes and people and structures that are part of his life.


Reina is also a cartoonist, whose work has appeared in the New Yorker magazine as well as with King Features Syndicate. He has recently published a book called
“Doug Reina, Under the Covers” which is available on Amazon and features cartoons and sketches pulled from the past 25 years of his sketchbooks.


For the past several years, he has held weekly painting lessons for adults in his studio.
In addition to painting, Reina enjoys collaborating with fellow artists. In 2021 he created a recurring zoom "Art-Hang" meeting with several regional artists to discuss art related topics. He also co-created and produced "Face to Face - Artists Painting Artists" an exhibition that was presented by the Long Island Museum in 2019. It featured approximately 60 works by more than 30 contemporary artists who sat for studio portraits of one another.


Reina's artwork has been exhibited in galleries, museums and public and private collections on Long Island, with some exposure in New York City, Connecticut and Florida as well. Galleries and museums that have exhibited his work include: • The Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY • Reboli Center for Art & History, Stony Brook, NY • Ille Arts, Amagansett, NY • Ashok Jain Gallery, New York, New York • The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New York • The Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York • The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, New York • Peter Marcelle Project, Southhampton, New York • Karen Mannix Contemporary, Watermill, New York • Gallery North, Setauket, New York • The South Street Gallery, Greenport, New York • Ripe Art Gallery, Greenlawn, New York • 9 East Contemporary Art, Huntington, New York • M&M Gallery, Southampton, NY

Reina's artwork is in both public and private collections including; • Renaissance Technologies • Stony Brook Medical Center • The Bay Shore Brightwaters Library • The Sebonac Golf Club
Artist Statment

My paintings occupy the space between representation and abstraction. I begin with subjects drawn from the world around me—landscapes, figures, buildings, vehicles, and familiar structures—but my interest lies less in documenting what I see than in discovering what a subject can become through painting.

I am drawn to ordinary places and objects that carry a particular visual or emotional charge. Through changes in color, scale, composition, and the elimination of expected detail, the familiar can become unfamiliar. A building, figure, or landscape remains recognizable, while simultaneously functioning as an arrangement of shape, value, color, and surface.

I often begin with a black ground. As the painting develops, I allow areas of that darkness to remain exposed rather than describing everything within the scene. These passages of black become active elements in the composition. They can suggest depth or emptiness, interrupt conventional space, and introduce an ambiguity that gives the work a dreamlike quality.

The dark ground also influences the physical character of the painting. Color emerges from and reacts against the black beneath it. Layers can be built up, scraped away, or interrupted to reveal lines and traces of the underlying surface. In recent work, materials including wax and tar have further expanded this exploration of texture, surface, and darkness.

I think of this approach as a form of modified realism. The subject provides an entry into the painting, but it is not the final destination. I want the image to remain rooted in something recognizable while allowing the formal and emotional possibilities of abstraction to take over.

Ultimately, I am interested in that moment when recognition becomes uncertain—when an ordinary place, object, or figure can feel familiar and strange at the same time. The painting may begin with something observed, but my hope is that it becomes something remembered, imagined, or felt.


C/V

Solo Shows

As I See It, Campo Cuttica, Flanders, NY 8/24/24

Prolonged Perception, Gallery North, Setauket, NY 4/7/2022

Doug Reina - A New View, Solo show at Woodbine Collection, Montauk, NY 9/30/2017
Solo show, RIPE Art Gallery, Huntington, NY 6/2015
R & D with Doug Reina at RIPE Art Gallery, Greenlawn, NY, 11/2010
Doug Reina – New Works, The South Street Gallery, Greenport, NY, 8/2010


Group Shows

Summer Group Show 2025, Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY 8/8/25

A Slice of Life, Lucore Arts, Montauk, NY 8/30/25

Springs Invitational, Ashawagh Hall, Springs NY 8/2025

Bloom, Gambit Works, New York, 4/25/24

Take to the Skies, Lucore Art Gallery, Montauk, NY 4/27/24

Ebb & Flow: Picturing the Power of Water, The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY, 6/2023

"On the Other Side", Haco Gallery, Brooklyn, NY 9/2021
83 Annual Guild Hall Members Show, East Hampton, NY 3/2021 "Best Representational Award"
East End Collected 6, Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY 2/2021
Long Island Biennial, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, 10/20
Contemporary Realism, Mills Pond House, St James, NY 8/2020
Town & Country, M&M Fine Art Gallery, Southampton, NY 6/2020
Dan's Papers Show, Reboli Center, Stony Brook NY 2/2020
Springs Invitational, Ashawagh Hall, Springs NY 8/2019
Face to Face; Artists Painting Artists, Long Island Museum, NY 7/2019
4 Person Show, Jamie Forbes gallery, Center Moriches, NY 7/2018
Artistic Dimensions, 3 person show, Reboli Center for Art and History, Stony Brook, NY, 5/2018
Works on Paper Holiday Show, Ille Arts, Amagansett, NY 12/2017
In Bloom, Reboli Center for Art and History, Stony Brook, NY 5/2017
A Sense of Place, Reboli Center for Art and History, Stony Brook, NY, 11/2016
Arthamptons, Artblend Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY, 6/2016
“2015 New England Landscape Invitational”, Lyme Art Association, Old Lyme, CT 11/2015
“Local Color: Then & Now”, Gallery North, Setauket, NY 10/2015
“Landscapes: Wish You Were Here”, Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY 6/2015
“In the Narrative Tradition”, Peter Marcelle Project, Southampton, NY 12/2014
“Sight Specific”, 3 person show, Anthony Giordano Gallery, Oakdale, NY, 8/2014 “Paper/Clay”, Ashok Jain Gallery, New York, NY, 7/2014
“REDO REINA x 2”, 9 East Contemporary Art, Huntington, NY, 8/2013
“NYFA MARK Alumni Exhibit”, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY, 6/2013
“Vernacular”, Karyn Mannix Contemporary, Water Mill, NY, 5/2013
“Daydreams & Cigar Boxes”, RIPE Art Gallery, Greenlawn, NY, 5/2013
“REINA x 2 at Ashawagh Hall”, East Hampton NY, 8/2012
“Long Island Biennial”, The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, 4/2012
“Body of Work Vll”, Ashawagh Hall, East Hampton, NY, 7/2011
“32nd Annual International Marine Art Exhibition”, The Maritime Gallery at Mystic Seaport, CT, 9/2011
“Brushworks”, Art League of Long Island, Dix Hills, NY, 7/2011
“55th Exhibition of Long Island Artists”, Art League of Long Island, Dix Hills, NY, Award of Excellence, 2011
“Dan’s Papers – 50 Years – 50 Artists” Art Auction, Southampton, NY, 8/2010
“Deep Blue Water”, Gallery North. Setauket, NY, 7/2010
“53rd Exhibition of Long Island Artists”, Art League of Long Island, Dix Hills, NY
Two Person Show, Rosalie Dimon Gallery, Jamesport, NY, 5/09 – 8/2009
“52nd Exhibition of Long Island Artists”, Art League of Long Island, Dix Hills, NY 9/2008, Award of Excellence
“Juried Fine Arts Show”, Big Arts, Sanibel, FL, 4/2008
“The Madeline Show”, South Street Gallery, Greenport, NY, 3/2008
“Petite Art Exhibition”, LaMantia Gallery. Northport, NY, 4/2007, First Place Award
“Translations of Reality”, Hampton Road Gallery, Southampton, NY, 1/2007
“Landscape at 40”, Gallery North, Setauket, NY, 9/2005
“Art Cache”, Hecksher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY, 10/2004


Commissions/ Collections
Renaissance Technologies, New York, NY
Stony Brook Medical Center, Stony Brook, NY
Sebonack Golf Club, Southampton, NY
Bayport - Brightwaters Library, Bay Shore, NY
Oceans Atlantic Agency, Delaware, MD
Private Commissions


Gallery/Agent Representation
William Ris Gallery, Jamesport, NY

Gambit Works, New York, NY

Lucore Art Gallery, Montauk, NY
Reboli Center for Art and History, Stony Brook, NY
MM Fine Art Gallery, Southampton, NY
Sara Nightingale Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY
Nine East Contemporary Art, Huntington, NY
Gallery North. Setauket, NY
The South Street Gallery. Greenport, NY
Jamie Forbes Gallery, Center Moriches, NY


Awards
2021 Pollock-Krasner Grant Recipient
2014 Pollock-Krasner Grant Recipient
2013 New York Foundation for the Arts S.O.S Grant
2009 New York Foundation for the Arts MARK Program


Board of Trustees Member
The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, NY 9/2021

Chairman of Collections Committee.


Curatorial
Juror for H20, The Art Guild, Manhasset, NY, April 2020
Co-Juror for Long Island's Best 2018, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY


Press
David Linneweh, “Podcast #278: Doug Reina”, Studio Break April 2022
Irene Ruddock, “TBR Newsmedia Artist of the Month: Doug Reina” Times Beacon Record, April 2022
Jennifer Landes, "At Guild Hall, Art in a Most Unusual Year", East Hampton Star, March 2021
Lee Meyer, "This Weeks Cover Artist: Doug Reina", Dan's Papers, July, 2020
Lee Meyer, "This Weeks Cover Artist: Doug Reina", Dan's Papers, May, 2019
Art Donovan, Doug Reina Turns Unremarkable Scenes Into Wonderfully Satisfying Images, Southampton & East Hampton Press, Aug. 2017
Joan Baum, "This Week's Cover Artist: Doug Reina", Dan's Papers, June 2015
Mary Gregory, “Linking the Past to the Future”, Pulse L.I. Magazine, Dec. 2014
Sue Wahlert, “Stony Brook Artist Receives Prestigious Grant.” Times Beacon Record, Jan. 2014
Nada Marjanovich, “9 in Art: Doug Reina.” Pulse L.I. Magazine, June 26, 2013
Marion Wolberg Weiss. “Honoring the Artist Doug Reina.” Dan’s Papers. April. 2013, p.39
James Duncan. “Teaching Studios of Art’s Plein Air Competition at Sagamore Hill.” American Artist Plein Air Painting. November 2011, pg 142
Marion Wolberg Weiss. “Images of Hearts at Ashawagh Hall.” Dan’s Papers. Feb. 2011, p.36
Eric Alfredo, “Interview with Artist Doug Reina.” Push Pause Fios TV, March, 2010
Marion Wolberg Weiss. “Honoring the Artist Doug Reina.” Dan’s Papers. April 2008, p.61
Cover Design. Dan’s Papers. May 2, 2008
Robin Finn. “The Fine Art of Helping Your Fellow Human Beings.” The New York Times. April. 2007. p.1
Laura Collins-Hughs. “Conversation with The Cover Artist Doug Reina.”
Canvas Magazine. Sept 2007. p.7
Helen A. Harrison. “Travelers on the Road to Discovery, Fueled by Imagination.”
The New York Times. March. 2006.
Nada Marjanovich. “Don’t Run, it’s Just Art!” Pulse Magazine. Sept. 2006, p54
Helen A. Harrison. “The Rewards of a Story Well Told.” The New York Times.
April 2005. p.12
Helen A. Harrison. “Loving The Landscape We Call Home.” The New York Times.
Sept. 2003. p.6


Education
Independent Study Painting classes with Stan Brodsky, Art League of Long Island
Plein Air workshops with Joseph Reboli and Christian White
Art Students League of New York
Emerson College, 1979 – 1981
S.U.N.Y. At Buffalo, Fine Arts.1977 – 1979


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