The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art presents two concurrent solo exhibitions: “White Days Unswallowed” by Bob Ray and “From the Ground Up”  by Steve Johnson. During the opening reception on August 26th, Bob Ray and collaborator Kevin Hardy debuted an original performance entitled “White Days Unswallowed”.

Throughout the exhibition, guided group tours will be offered through the Halsey Institute’s Looking to See program. All events are free with the public encouraged to attend.

Bob Ray, born just east of Kansas City, MO, works in a variety of media, from drawings, paintings, collage, and sculpture, to correspondence and performance works. His aesthetic borrows heavily from the Dada and Fluxus movements, with a strong combination of word, gesture, and image. Since 1990, he has been very active in international correspondence art activities and projects in Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Japan, United States, Bolivia, Spain, Hungary, Switzerland and Latvia. He has had extended exchanges with some of the most significant correspondence artists in the world, including Ray Johnson, Richard C, Giorgio Cavalinni and Torma Cauli.

Bob Ray’s works are as illusive as his artist statement:

“it was not made of words so I ate what I could grasp”

What is made poorly, what is made well — an Ozark hog pen, a thoroughbred stable in Kentucky– what runs between these constructions? How does one arrive at these points? The poetic image, mysteries of a nocturnal fable, random juxtapositions of the man made and the natural which eventually leak into each other; this is the composition of my visual interest at the moment.

“it wasn’t what I thought it was, and isn’t what I think it is”

In addition to his complex and varied visual works, Ray is also an accomplished “honky tonk” singer and guitar player. Currently living twenty-three miles out in the Atlantic Ocean on the island of Ocracoke, NC, Ray’s work has been published and exhibited internationally.