PAST EXHIBITIONS:

ANDREA RAY

Saturday, October 23, 6-8 PM

SUITE 106 Gallery is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of New York-based artist Andrea Ray. In Ray’s current sound installation, Numb, the artist combines a floral and seating arrangement to provide a physically engaging atmosphere for her audio component. A mound of red poppies and grey felt fill the center of the space. As viewers relax in two reclined seats upon the mound an audio narrative echoes excerpts of desirable numb conditions from Othello, Thomas de Quincey and Beaudelaire. The artist examines the therapeutic fantasy of a detached state of mind, in contrast with an over-stimulated, prolonged sense of anxiety.

Ray’s previous installation at the Sculpture Center, Inhalatorium, provided a soothing Zen-like effect. In a hallway dressed with facing benches, fluorescent lights, and a crunchy salt-covered floor, two voices held a steady, calming middle tone. Ray’s current exhibition displays her continued interest with pacifying elements, questioning the effectiveness of such slightly neurotic audio and visual distractions.

Andrea Ray received a BFA at Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art. She participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program from 1996-1997, and in 2002 with the LMCC New Views residency at the World Financial Center. In 2004, Ray was the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a Cité Internationale des Arts Residency.

Suite 106 gallery represents Michel Auder, Heather Cantrell, Michael Dee, Rover Feyer, Lynne Gelfman, Gerben Mulder, Andrea Ray, Chris Sollars, Mark Woods and Italo Zuffi.