Reyah / Reyah

Reyah’s nude self-portraits are classic compositions, until the viewer registers yards of manipulated rope coursing round their body. Dre Hudson is an artist and bodybuilder, who gave agency to his nonbinary alter ego Reyah, releasing Hudson from binary gender assumptions in the studio. Reyah composes, costumes, and photographs themself using rope as regal motifs of pageantry. Reframing rope from its legacy of violence and restraint liberates the artist from it’s historical weight. Alone in their studio, Reyah takes agency with all aspects of their process, constructing the rope costumes, lighting their body, and finally exposing the shot. Reyah advances a seductive coming of age story, Becoming Reyah.

We’re honored to debut the stunning series of archival pigment prints from Reyah, a self-taught artist, at Untitled Art 2023. Reyah’s body of work in self-portraiture represents a multi-year timeline of building knowledge and experience with their medium-format camera.