"Collage Creations & All That Jazz at NC Wesleyan College"

Rocky Mount: COLLAGE CREATIONS and ALL THAT JAZZ, Artist Eric McRay Exhibits New Work at Wesleyan College’s Dunn Center Mims Gallery.

By popular demand Eric McRay is returning to Wesleyan College’s Dunn Center Mims Gallery with new work in collage and his familiar jazz action paintings. Opening Friday, November 9 with a 7-9 free reception party for the artist with ambient mood set by the jazz keyboards of “Mac” McLaughlin.  McRay’s exhibition“COLLAGE CREATIONS and ALL THAT JAZZ” involves themes such as family in the African-American culture, spirituality, and music.

Just as McRay has mastered the drip and splash of 20th century action painting in his popular jazz pictures, the artist has recently produced an impressive collection of his collage creations. Collage is considered one of the major innovations of 20^th century modern art and to use cut and torn photographs and scraps of paper from the world around us has empowered McRay to push the boundaries that allow the real world to infiltrate a painting, dissolving the conventions that separate art and life. 

McRay earned a BFA degree at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, where he received a four-year scholarship. In 1998, he was juried into downtown Raleigh's prestigious Artspace.  Eric has served in the offices of Vice-President and President of the Artspace Artists Association, as well as served on Artspace's board of directors. Please feel free to contact McRay at 919-614-2174 or visit his website www.mcraystudios.com

McRay has been featured on TV and radio, and in numerous newspapers and magazines.  The Raleigh News &; Observer named him one of the "Artists to Watch" for 2001.  He was featured in the June 2002 issue of Southern Living Magazine.  Some of McRay's corporate collectors include American Tobacco Campus, Capitol Broadcasting, Duke University Medical Center, NC State University, UNC Chapel Hill, SAS Institute, and Western Wake Hospital, as well as many private collectors locally,nationally and internationally.

The Mims Gallery is a perfect stop before or after your Friday night out or the Chinese Circus at the Dunn Center. Free to the public we show terrific art and bring in the best live music to enrich our opening art parties. Come meet Eric McRay, enjoy “Mac” McLaughlin’s sounds and take the kids to the circus all in one night.

"Boomtown By Night"

"Buddy's Pride & Joy"

"Pennies From Heaven"

"Plucking Flowers"