Rex Ray (September 11, 1956 – February 9, 2015) was an American

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscip ...

er and

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

artist, based in San Francisco.

Biography

Born as Michael Patterson on September 11, 1956, on a United States Army base in Germany, and he was raised in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since 2 ...

, Colorado. He moved to San Francisco in 1981, to attend

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

(SFAI) where he graduated. Early in his career he worked as a digital graphic designer for nightclubs and for music shows. He designed and performed with

The Residents The Residents are an American art collective and art rock band best known for their avant-garde music and multimedia works. Since their first official release, ''Meet the Residents'' (1974), they have released over 60 albums, numerous music v ...

, as well as designed for David Bowie, among others. He changed his name to Rex Ray in order to start anew and be free of his past. By the early 1990s he started a professional fine art practice. Ray had been one of the first artists to use Mac computer-based technology to create his art. He had two units in the Allied Box Factory in the

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish language, Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Franci ...

in San Francisco, one was his living space and the other was his art studio. He referred to his artwork "paintings" even though they were often collage-based and lacked any traditional painting techniques. He died February 9, 2015 after a five year battle with lymphoma. His work is in museums including the

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, nation ...

Publications

* *

References

External links

* Video
75 Reasons to Live: Rex Ray on Andy Warhol’s ''Self-Portrait''
(2010) from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) * Video
How to Make a Rex Ray
(2010, aired 2018) from Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Rex 2015 deaths 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists 20th-century American painters American male painters 1956 births Mission District, San Francisco Artists from San Francisco People from Colorado Springs, Colorado Deaths from cancer in California 20th-century American male artists