Eleanor Ray

Eleanor Ray is an American painter based in Brooklyn, New York.^[1] She was born in 1987 in Gainesville, Florida.

Life and work

Ray graduated from the New York Studio School with a Master of Fine Arts in 2012 and from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts in 2009.^[1]

Her work depicts landscapes and interiors in small-scale paintings.^[2] She has painted art-historically significant sites, including Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" at the Great Salt Lake in Utah, Donald Judd's installations in Marfa, Texas, and frescoed interiors in Assisi, Florence, and Padua, Italy.^[3] Writing about her work in 2019, the critic Kyle Chayka compared it to Giorgio Morandi and Pierre Bonnard.^[4] Ray believes that the smaller scale of the paintings allows for more control and intimacy.^[5] Her paintings are based on experiences visiting specific places.^[6]

Ray has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting^[7] and residencies at Yaddo,^[8] Ucross Foundation,^[9][10] and Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University.

Exhibitions

• Eleanor D. Wilson Museum of Art at Hollins University^[11]
• Nicelle Beauchene Gallery; New York, NY (2019)^[2][12] (2021)^[13][14][15]
• Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects; New York City, NY^[1]
• College of William & Mary; Williamsburg, VA^[1]
• The Center for Contemporary Art; Bedminster, NJ^[1]
• Rothschild Fine Art; Tel Aviv^[1]
• American Academy of Arts and Letters; New York^[1]
• Interstate Projects; Brooklyn, NY^[1]
• BRIC House; Brooklyn, NY^[1]
• Howard's; Athens, GA^[2]
• The Landing; Los Angeles, CA^[2]

Collections

• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia^[16]