Rex Ray

San Francisco artist Rex Ray created a site-specific mural at MCA Denver for the Promenade Gallery. Ray has a national reputation based not just on his fine art, but as a designer of everything from books to coffee mugs. Ray created the mural specifically for this exhibition and specially designed the wallpaper that surrounds it. The mural is signature to the artist's style, with shapes that rise from the base in the manner of a still-life or landscape. The shapes were made from cut-outs of painted papers and were laid against a stunning blue ground. They were inspired by organic forms, or at least abstractions of them, as seen in mid-century modern design. The wallpaper has a spare, all-over pattern on a white ground, complementing the mural without competing with it. 

Rex Ray was born in 1956 in Landstuhl, Germany under the name Michael Patterson. He was raised in Colorado Springs and inspired by Andy Warhol, adopted the moniker Rex Ray just before moving to San Francisco in 1981. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied with Sam Tchakalian, Kathy Acker, and Angela Davis, and received his BFA in 1989. He became a major force in the Bay Area’s art, literary, and activist communities. Ray’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Akron Art Museum, Ohio; Berkeley Art Museum California; Crocker Art Museum, California; McNay Art Museum, Texas; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and San Jose Museum of Art.