Ray Ewing's work is an investigation into my relationship with land, landscape, site, and space as they apply to my interests in culture as well as my personal history. Through photographs, videos, digital environments, and other media, I am parsing apart meanings in architecture, tourism, geography, and history. My cultural interests span from Americana to ancient Greece and Rome, to the sensorial experience of space, to New Medievalism in video games. Whatever the subject is, I am interested in creating allegories for my knowledge of the world.

rayewing.com

Artist biography

Ray Ewing is a photographer and artist from the island of Martha's Vineyard. Ray received a BFA in photography from Maine College of Art in Portland in 2012 and an MFA in studio art at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 2016. Ray has worked as a photojournalist, commercial photographer, educator, and an exhibiting artist. Ray is currently teaching photography at The College of The Desert in Palm Desert, CA, as well as Miracosta College in Oceanside, CA.

As a photojournalist, Ray has received multiple awards for his work with the Martha's Vineyard Gazette. His photographs have been published in Martha's Vineyard Magazine, Edible Vineyard, The Cape Cod Times, The Huffington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. As an artist, Ray has been a part of multiple national and international group exhibitions and four solo shows entitled The Ancient World in America, Visual Stimulus, and FAUXASIS.

Managed Spaces

This project seeks to document the results of human interaction with land. These landscapes reside in the zones between human management and wilderness. I find these meeting places of natural and synthetic elements to be absurd confusions of intention and understanding.I hope to expose the small comedies created in these places by our attempts to control nature as well as the arrogance of the assumption that we can understand a process of interaction that is inherently far more complex than we are. As my subjects are the result of land being forced through human terms to become digestible, I come to terms with them through a logic that exists in the photographic language.

Solo Exhibitions

2019 The Ancient World in America. The Chilmark Public Library. Chilmark, MA

2016 FAUXASIS. 5G Gallery. Albuquerque, NM FAUXASIS. The Oak Bluffs Public Library. Oak Bluffs, MA

2009 Visual Stimulus. The Featherstone Center for The Arts, Oak Bluffs, MA

selected exhibitions

2019 Lifted. Pearl Conrad Gallery, The Ohio State University. Mansfield, OH College of The Desert Faculty Show. The Marks Art Center. Palm Desert, CA Environment Documenta. Millepiani Coworking. Rome, Italy Stranger Than Fiction. Millepiani Coworking. Rome, Italy Vineyard Voices 3. The Martha’s Vineyard Museum. Tisbury, MA

2018 Bombay Beach Biennial, Year III. Bombay Beach, CA BELLY FLOP. Pool Party. Palm Springs, CA Transformation. College of The Mainland Art Gallery. Texas City, TX College of The Desert Faculty Show. The Marks Art Center. Palm Desert, CA

2017 Manufactured Untruth CASP 5&J Gallery. Lubbock, TX Hold My Drink Pool Party. Palm Springs, CA Big Featherstone Center for The Arts. Oak Bluffs, MA Eyes of The Island Featherstone Center for The Arts. Oak Bluffs, MA Atlantis Pool Party. Palm Springs, CA

2016 College of The Desert Faculty Show The Marks Art Center. Palm Desert, CA Future Projections. Indian Photography Festival State Art Gallery. Hyderabad, India Future Projections. Auckland Festival of Photography Studio One Toi Tū. Auckland, New Zealand The 22nd Annual Juried Graduate Exhibition UNM Art Museum. Albuquerque, NM Art Basil Van Nuys, CA Yuma Art Symposium Student Show Yuma Art Center. Yuma, AZ Capisci? 5G Gallery. Albuquerque, NM

2015 Breaking Boundaries VI Pingyao International Photography Festival. Shanxi, China Connectivity: The 21st Annual Graduate Juried Exhibition UNM Art Museum. Albuquerque, NM The Altered Landscape Clamp Light Artist Studios and Gallery. San Antonio, TX Regarding Leisure University of North Florida. Jacksonville, FL Fotka 5G North Gallery. Albuquerque, NM 30 Under 30 The Virginia Weston Besse Gallery, Featherstone Center for The Arts. Oak Bluffs, MA Yuma Art Symposium Student Show Yuma Art Center. Yuma, AZ Arts Unexpected S.H. Kress Building. Albuquerque, NM

2014 Breakthroughs: The 20th Annual Graduate Juried Exhibition UNM Art Museum. Albuquerque, NM Emerging Photographer's Auction Daniel Cooney Fine Art. New York, NY

2013 At First Sight AC2 Gallery. Albuquerque, NM

2012 Culminate: Maine College of Art BFA Thesis Exhibition. Porteous Building. Portland, ME

2011 Darkroom to Lightroom. The Featherstone Center for The Arts, Oak Bluffs, MA

Awards and Distinctions

2018 Stephen Pace House Residency. MECA. Stonington, ME

2017 Maine College of Art Alumni Artist Residency. MECA. Portland, ME

2016 Beaumont Newhall Fellowship in Photography. The University of New Mexico

2015 NENPA Photo Series Category 1st Place Prize. For The Vineyard Gazette

2014 NENPA Pictorial Category 1st Place Prize. For The Vineyard Gazette

2013 Publick Occurences Award, NENPA. For The Vineyard Gazette