REX RAY Germany/US 1956-2015

This week we looked at the work of modern master Rex Ray, who was an internationally recognized activist ,

artist, and designer based in San Fransisco. Born in Landstuhl, Germany in 1956, he was raised in Colorado . He received his BFA in 1989 from the San Francisco Art Institute and became a major force in the Bay Area’s art, literary, and activist communities. During his lifetime Rex Ray generated a prolific body of painting and work on paper leaving an abundant artistic legacy. He was one of the first artists to use Mac-based technologies in the creative process to generate art and graphics. His technique involved a complicated process that combined Xerography, handmade woodblock prints, newsprint, and magazine images into vibrant color schemes with parabolic forms and abstract patterns. Throughout his career he produced many posters for various causes including Act Up in San Francisco.Known for his innovative pop aesthetic he developed an impressive client list including over 100 posters for Bill Graham Presents, numerous covers for City Light Publishers, commissions for major recording artists such as David Bowie, and Apple.His fine art is represented by numerous galleries and exhibited in museums in the US and England. The Rex Ray Memorial Fund was created to ensure that high school students have access to visual arts by providing critical funding to teachers and students to nurture the advancement and sustainability of visual arts culture. It was his wish that the Fund would generate positive effects for young people and support the imaginations and creativity of youth as well as those for whom art is an essential and vital tool to meet the challenges of urban youth culture today. " From the colliding worlds of art, design, media culture, fashion, and street culture, he has created work utterly of the moment, yet utterly eternal.” — Douglas Coupland