Mack’s figurative oil paintings harness conventional, erudite practices and themes present in the larger western canon to point a questioning finger at the social systems that spawned them. Fundament, with its dual definition of “foundation” and “buttocks,” describes this collection aptly: Influenced by the form and content of classic tropes from American history paintings and nostalgic images of Americana, Mack’s paintings re-imagine familiar scenes to reveal the nightmares hidden just beneath the surface, our country’s unseemly bedrock of internalized gender hierarchies.
Mack’s work combines a low-brow sense of humor and style with oil painting technique, compositional eye, and art historical references of a well trained and highly skilled artist. The paintings range in context, directly challenging gendered dynamics in iconic images throughout art history, from Charles Willson Peale’s “The Artist in His Museum” (1822) to Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square” (1945) to Norman Rockwell’s “From Concord to Tranquility” (1973).
Drawing on art historical references and formal strategies, reworking the male-dominated canon through her humorous and distinctly situated gaze. The unsettling combination of conventional, erudite practice and crude, lowbrow gesture highlights themes present in a male-dominated art history, and our oversexed, under-stimulated popular culture, which ultimately serves to tickle the armpits of the stodgy old men who made them, and shake loose the tragicomedy that we find when we look at our own societally induced sentimentality. The viewer is left intellectually and emotionally piqued, uncertain whether to giggle or weep.
In the months since Donald Trump’s occupancy of the White House, Mack’s work has shifted. Subjects that seemed too on-the-nose or obvious in the past are now appropriate -- perhaps even vital -- to address head-on, with sincerity. This is an unsettling time in America, and Mack’s work offers clear reminders of what it means to have fought for and secured the rights and freedoms we all deserve.
Included in the exhibition are a series of works that borrow scenes directly from specific Rockwell paintings. In Mack’s hands, the formerly “neutral” scenes are malformed, ghostlike versions of themselves, haunted with gaping mouths, sagging limbs and flaccid phalluses. The implicit neutrality in Rockwell’s images, Mack reminds us, is based purely on the fact that they are ubiquitous. This effect reflects some of the contemporary blind spots Americans face in addressing issues of discrimination. In one work, Mack depicts a scenario of two female roommates intimately huddled together looking at a magazine; Mack’s image responds directly to Rockwell’s reductive Saturday Evening Post cover of wide-eyed damsels from the 1940s by reflecting a more emotionally realistic version of two adult women sharing space and interest.
Mack’s Betsy Ross series places the woman as the focal centerpiece, responding to the virtual absence of historically significant women in American history paintings. Mack intentionally redirects the focus to Ross to highlight the gendered mythology of her role.
Through thoughtful subversion of familiar images, Mack’s work unflinchingly reminds us that now is the time to reexamine “normal.”
EDUCATION
2012
MFA, Painting, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco CA
2006
BA, Studio Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson NY
Solo Exhibitions
2016
Thinking of You, Minnesota Street Project (Bass and Reiner Gallery) San Francisco CA
What he said, Punch Gallery, Seattle WA
2013
Replicant Presents Ray Mack, The Lab, San Francisco CA
2012
Public Patron Painting Party Project, Ellensburg WA
Ray Mack Leaves The House, Bay Area 51, San Francisco CA
2006
Bring a Lamp, it’s Dark Outside, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson NY
Group Exhibitions
2017
28 Day Cycle, Studio 110 Projects, San Francisco, CA
Every Damn Day, Totally Rad Gallery, Berkeley, CA
2016
Wish You Could Have Seen This, San Francisco Civic Center, San Francisco CA
American Painting Today, V2, Seattle WA
Punch Out, Punch Gallery, Seattle WA
2015
Seattle Art Fair, Seattle WA
New Members Exhibition, Punch Gallery, Seattle WA
Westward Bound: PUNCH Gallery meets Clymer, Clymer Museum, Ellensburg WA
2014
Shades of Impact, Worth-Ryder Gallery, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley CA
2013
SF Artists in a Suitcase, The Zimmer Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Currency, The Old Mint, San Francisco CA
Our Art Show, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco CA
See You Next Tuesday, Autzen, AB Lobby, & MK Galleries, Portland State University, Portland, OR
C.U.N.T., Rocks Box Contemporary Fine Art, Portland, OR
2012
CELLSpace, San Francisco CA
Bad Drawing, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco CA
Haunted House, S.H.E.D. Projects, Oakland CA
2011
Hanging Out with a Purpose, The Northern, Olympia WA
2010
All the Answers You Gave Me were Wrong, Alley Cat Gallery, Ellensburg WA
2009
53rd Annual Central Washington Juried Artist’s Exhibition, Larson Gallery, Yakima, WA
The Art Olympics, Bay Area 51, San Francisco, CA
Annual Juried Show, Gallery One Visual Arts Center, Ellensburg WA
2006
This Comfortable Virtual Life, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson NY
Hurricane Katrina Benefit Show, Hudson Valley Arts Center, Hudson NY
ARTIST RESIDENCIES
2009
New Other Other World Residency, Bay Area 51, San Francisco CA
2008 & 2007
Artist-in-Residence, Gallery One Visual Arts Center, Ellensburg WA
PUBLICATIONS AND PRESS
2017
Joyce Brown, “Artist Ray Mack paints new versions of male-dominated iconic works,”
7Q Interviews, http://www.7qinterviews.com/interviews/ray-mack
2016
Matthew Kangas, “American Painting Today,” Visual Art Source,
http://www.visualartsource.com/index.php?page=editorial&pcID=17&aID=3729
Jos Truitt, “Painter Ray Mack Shoplifts from the Dudes of Art History,” feministing.com, http://feministing.com/2016/05/03/painter-ray-mack-shoplifts-from-the-dudes-of-art-history/
Kimberly Chun, “Local Artists take a look at American identity” sfgate.com, http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Local-artists-take-a-look-at-American-identity-7554642.phph
Adam Brinklow, “Arts Commission Building Flashes Morse Code Messages from Ex-San Francisco Artists,” sf.curbed.com,
http://sf.curbed.com/2016/6/6/11871034/displaced-artists-morse-code
John Metcalfe, “A San Francisco Building Sends Out Coded Messages About Displacement,” CITYLAB.com,
2013
C.U.N.T. Exhibition Catalogue, Rocksbox Contemporary Fine Art, Portland, CA
Currency Exhibition Catalogue, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
David M. Roth “‘Currency’- SFAI’s MFA Show @ The Old Mint,” SquareCylinder.com
2012
Bite, Cul, Nichons Et Chatte, Editions Ripopee, Nyon, Switzerland
Salt Hill Issue 29, Syracuse, NY
Lauren Smith, “Emerging Artists,” 2opCollec(tive),
http://2opcollective.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/ray-mack/
2009
Tara Jepson, “Bay Area 51,” SF Weekly, San Francisco, CA
http://www.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/bay-area-51/Content?oid=2171915
2006
Bard Papers, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
LECTURES
2017
Artist Talk, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2016
Artist Talk, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
2013
Artist Talk, DISCLOSE, San Francisco CA
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
2015
Artist Trust EDGE Professional Development Program, Port Townsend, WA
2013
Actor and Set Assistant, Happy Birthday, Mike Kuchar Production, San Francisco, CA
Actor and Set Assistant, Starbound, Mike Kuchar Production, San Francisco CA
2011
Art Department and Actor, Mindglow, Eric Svedas and Sam Wohl Production, San Francisco, CA
2009-11
Founding Board Member, Program Management, Instructor; Alley Cat Artists, Ellensburg, WA
2008
Education Volunteer, Harlem Studio Museum, Manhattan NY
2002-09
Acting Program Coordinator, Program Assistant, Assistant grant writer; Gallery One Visual Arts Center, Ellensburg WA
2005
Intern, Tacoma Economic Development Department, Tacoma, WA
