Monthly Archives: June 2014

THIS AND THIS

Leo Ray’s new paintings are large-scale, impressive, absorbing, yet nonetheless—soft and delicate, as though pervaded by an enchanting dreamlike atmosphere. They create a panoramic landscape that seeks to draw its viewers into itself, but the landscape then dissolves into foggy mysticism – see the work “Balcony,” for example. Ray’s paintings move along the axis of… Read more »

CAPTURING NATURE

Moving on to an adjoining gallery one is hit by a captivating range of raucously colored and amusingly drawn paintings by Leo Ray (b. Vilnius, 1950), based on a recurring group of cartoon-like actors, mostly human and feline with the occasional bird, horse and dog tagging along. Ray pulls out all the spectral stops by… Read more »

PARAGRAPH FOR LEO RAY’S CATALOG

Art is a very narrow bridge to Ayoka* lands. Painting is an attempt to create an identity card that would serve as an entrance pass to the temporary camp of those who try to understand a source of vitality. One who confronts a blank page daily, knows that it is impossible to stay emotionaly uninvolved… Read more »

THE WHITE LANDSCAPES

For about three years Ray and I were trying to agree on an exhibition. This entailed a number of visits to his studio in the heart of the noisy and sooty industrial area of Tel Aviv, with each visit leaving me with a longing to return for the next. Ray became known in Israel and… Read more »

LEO RAY, THIS AND THIS, HEZI COHEN GALLERY

Between sooty garages and gray streets of southern Tel Aviv sits painter Leo Ray and creates his worlds. These worlds are colorful, humorous and disturbing at the same time. A Renaissance scribe writing a message (“You Better Send Me SMS”), a frightened cat standing on his hind paws (“Espresso”), a city in blue, a woman on… Read more »

LEO RAY’S APPROACH TO INFINITY

L’acqua che tocchi dei fiumi è l’ultima di quella che andò e la prima di quella cheviene. Così il tempo presente  (Leonardo da Vinci) The water which you touch in the river is the last of that which has already passed and the first of that which is to come; such is the present (Leonardo da Vinci)… Read more »