LUCY RAY IS AN ARTIST LIVING & WORKING BETWEEN AUSTRALIA & ABU DHABI.
Lucy Ray is a Melbourne artist raised in Yeppoon, on the traditional land of the Darumbal People of Central Queensland, living between Australia and Abu Dhabi, UAE. She is represented in Australia by Flinders Lane Gallery.
Her work blends the real and the imagined in scenes that combine the sense of being an outsider, feelings of being alone but not alone and bridging the ordinary and the uncanny. She strives to capture the natural world and small everyday things contemplatively by presenting an altered interpretation.
​
Recurring themes in her work include loneliness, nostalgia and the notions of sonder and liminality. These themes are explored through detailed drawings composed of multi-layered graphite marks on paper, a process that is meditative and creates a textured dimensionality and movement.
Creating narratives in bleak and desolate environments, populated by strange figures and out-of-place objects, invites the viewer to contemplate more than what is seen in her work. The works become a peculiar mirror on which the viewers can layer their perceptions and meaning.​
​
Moving part-time to Abu Dhabi in 2019, she has actively pursued the art community in Australia and internationally, exhibiting and hosting a workshop with Black and White Diary's travelling gallery in Dubai and Melbourne through invitational group shows and collectives.
In 2022 she had her second solo show in Melbourne, Australia. Attended the SIM art residency, Korpúlfsstaðir, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Is a finalist in several art prizes and was awarded the works on paper prize for Brunswick Street Gallery's Fifty Squared Art Prize in Melbourne, VIC.
​
This year welcomes a group show at Flinders Lane Gallery and Outré Gallery, a finalist in the Lethbridge Landscape Prize and Dobell Drawing Prize, published work with Booooooom! in Tomorrow’s Talent Book III and a December residency at Vermont Studio Center.
PUBLICATIONS
​
2023
New Visionary Magazine 8 | Visionary Art Collective
Tomorrow's Talent Book III | Booooooom!
​
2022
Artist profile | Booooooom!
Path | Niche - Dovetail Magazine
Canvas book II | Canvas Collective
​
ART PRIZES
​
2023
Fishers Ghost Art Award | Campbelltown Arts Centre Finalist
Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award | Finalist
Delphian Open Call 23 | Winner
Lethbridge Landscape Prize | Finalist
The Dobell Drawing Prize 23 | Finalist
​
2022
​Brunswick St Gallery Fifty Squared Art Prize | Winner - Works on paper
TACIT Still Life Prize | Winner - The Art Room Prize
Boynes Emerging Artist Award 7th edition | Finalist
Fortyfivedownstairs ​Emerging Artist Award | Finalist
JADA Art Prize | Finalist
Gosford Art Prize | Finalist
2020
Delphian summer show | Shortlisted (juried)
​
2019
ANL Art Prize | Shortlisted (juried)
​
RESIDENCIES
​
2023
Vermont Studio Centre | Vermont, USA
​
2022
SIM | Korpúlfsstaðir, Iceland
​
EDUCATION
​
2006
Degree | Bachelor of Built Environment, Interior Design, Queensland University Of Technology
​
2002
Diploma | Fine Art, Painting / Silver-smithing, TAFE Queensland
Short courses :
2021
Morimoto Studio | Keita Morimoto, Landscape Painting - Classical to Contemporary
​
2020
Domestika | Marco Mazzoni, Chiaroscuro Creative Portrait with Pencils
Coursera | Moma, In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting
​
2018
Melbourne Studio of Art | Brock Q Piper, Abstract Painting
EXHIBITIONS
​
2022
The Ghost who walks | Off the Kerb
2019
Sense | Off the Kerb
​
​
GROUP SHOWS
​
2023
Delphian Open Call 23 | Unit 1 Gallery Workshop
Exploration 23 | Flinders Lane Gallery
Locals | Outré Gallery
Still life Redux | Tacit Gallery
Gather Together | Fort Heart / Dark Mofo
​
2022
Still life Art Prize | Tacit Gallery
Feast | Brunswick St Gallery
Revelations | ​ Visionary Art Collective
OURS | Ours Fitzroy
Path | Niche - Dovetail Magazine
Spring Days | Off the Kerb
Canvas book II | Canvas Collective
Joy | Off the Kerb
Spring days | Off the Kerb
Lemonade | Honey Bones Gallery
​
2021
Bones | Honey Bones Gallery
Oysters & Art | Fort Heart
Overexposed | Visionary Projects NYC
For the earth | Mafa Gallery Fort Heart
This Uncertain Freedom | Canvas Collective
The Darkest Night | The Old Bar Gallery
Winter days | Off the Kerb
Lands | Off the Kerb
For the earth | Fort Heart
Resurrection | Off the Kerb
​
2020
Still Life | No Vacancy Gallery
Hope in Isolation | Fort Heart
Metamorph | No Vacancy Gallery
13th Birthday show | Off the Kerb
Group show & Workshop | Black&White Diary
​
2019
Christmas gallery show | Off the Kerb
Small 45 | FortyFive Downstairs
Family & friends | Daine Singer Gallery
Botanical spring | Brunswick St Gallery (juried)
Winter days | Off the Kerb
Animalia | Off the Kerb
​
2018
Fifty Squared Art Prize | Brunswick St Gallery
​