"Trial by Fire II"

"Make That Kitty Meow!"

"The Garden"

November 1-30, 2013
Opening Reception
First Friday Gallery Walk: November 1, 2013
6-10pm

Artspace
Upfront Gallery
201 E. Davie Street
Raleigh, NC

Artspace Phone: 919.821.2787
http://artspacenc.org/exhibitions/current/upfront/

McRay Studios Phone: 919-614-2174
mcraystudios.com

For the month of November, new collage works by Artspace Artists Association member Eric McRay will be on display in the Upfront Gallery.

McRay has had a vital presence in the Artspace building for over fourteen years. About the collage technique, he says "collage, one of the major innovations of modern art, is an artist inserting pieces of the real world into a constructed one." McRay injects impromptu invention in the construction of his collages, which include such materials as painted papers, photographic reproductions, snippets of photographs, scraps of fabric, elements from magazines, cut & torn paper, water-media & acrylic paints. The different materials of everyday existence are edited, sliced and reassembled into new images on paper, board or canvas.

These constructed worlds pull the viewer into a new reality. Collage empowers McRay to push the boundaries that allow the real world to infiltrate a painting, dissolve the conventions that separate art and life, high art and popular culture.

Artist Bio
Eric McRay received a BFA degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he earned a four-year scholarship for his artistic talent. He has been exhibiting in NC since 1987, and McRay was juried into Artspace in 1998. McRay has been featured on TV and radio shows, and in multiple newspapers and magazines. McRay's work can be found in numerous corporate collections.