fencing, 11″ x 15″, ink and gouache on paper.

I recently finished a new small drawing that will be included in the upcoming Ironton show, presence and absence. I am currently at work on another larger stretched paper painting that will also be included. The Ironton show is coming together, as Tonia Bonnell and I make some of the final decisions; title, postcards, press release. I will continue to add new information on the show as it coalesces.

Also, I would like to mention that I am going to be making another large wall painting – this the largest yet – at the Foothills Art Center for the exhibition Stark which will open May 14. Stark will include other local artist who are working in black and white, or otherwise address stark as a concept. I will also add new information about this project as I begin to work on imagery and placement in the space.

The opening at the Rule Gallery on Feb 5 was well-attended – thank you to all who came out for it. I finished the wall painting, Displace, above, just in time for Kyle MacMillan of the Denver Post to come view the show.  The Denver Post ran his article on Sunday, Feb 7, covering both the Rule curated group show and an artist-curated exhibition at Plus Gallery. The article featured several full color photographs – including one of my wall painting – but can be viewed in text-only form on the Post’s website, here. Of my work, MacMillan stated:

Mindy Bray, Rule. Working from photographs of rushing, cascading water, this Denver artist abstracts the imagery to its rawest yet still recognizable essence.

Bray creates simple yet complex compositions of flowing forms and interplays of negative and positive space that she has realized in an assortment of media, including “Disperse,” a wonderfully sculptural, 6-foot-square wall hanging cut from felt.

Also, Nathan Abels created a pdf catalog of the exhibition, which includes all of the images in both his solo exhibition and his curated group show, as well as an exhibition essay and curatorial statement. You can download the catalog at Nathan’s website, here.

This past weekend (and beginning of the week, between teaching) I’ve been busy at work on a new wall painting at the Rule Gallery for the upcoming show, Natural Causes, that opens this Friday.  The new piece is titled Displace, and uses the same color pallette as Water Feature from Anderson Ranch, and is also based on an image of water moving.  This particular image was taken from a small stream in Snowmass Village that had a footpath following it, and, I believe, was somewhat directed through constructed boulder fields to create waterfalls.  I am interested in how this image is beginning to become more dynamic, and includes extreme switches between positive and negative space, so that the two are in constant flux, constantly displacing one another; just as the natural and the manmade elements of the image’s origins are displacing one another, arriving at some hybrid envrionment.  Please come see the fiished piece at the opening at 6pm at the Rule Gallery, or here in the next post for those out of town.

Nathan Abels is a Denver artist whose work I admire, and who I have found myself alongside in several group shows. He is having a solo exhibition at Rule Gallery this February, and is curating a group show to share the space. He invited me to be a part of this group show, and I am excited to be making a new wall piece for the space, as well as showing one of my recent felt pieces from Anderson Ranch, Disperse. I will also have a small goucahe drawing on mylar with the grouping.

There will be an opening reception for the show at Rule on Friday, February 5 from 6 – 9pm.

Visit the Rule Gallery site for more information, and for directions.  http://www.rulegallery.com/.

Also, visit Nathan’s site and see more of his work at http://nathanabels.wordpress.com/.

Welcome to my new website! I am hoping that this new format will allow me to keep you up to date on what is happening in my studio, as well as shows, and things that I am looking and thinking about. Here is an image of my recent wall painting at Anderson Ranch. It was a completely ephemeral piece; I started painting on a Monday, finished late on that Friday night, invited people to view it on Saturday, and on Sunday, painted over it. I enjoyed the opportunity to explore this format again, and to see some new avenues I can take it. I hope to use more gallery spaces in this way in the future.