JOY RAY
WORKS
Chromophobia II, 2022-23 Paint, twine, sand, gravel and fiber fill on fabric, double-sided Text by Le Corbusier and Henri Michaux 85 x 42 x 4 in.
Spectacle II (time and history), 2023 Paint, twine and fiber fill on fabric, double-sided Text by Guy Debord 66 x 32 x 5 in.
Spectacle I (separation perfected), 2023 Paint, twine and fiber fill on fabric, double-sided Text by Guy Debord 75 x 32 x 5 in.
Black and White, 2023 Paint and thread on fabric Text by Joy Ray 228 x 44 in.
Dare to Discipline, 2023 Paint, ink, thread and fabric on book pages Text by Dr. James Dobson and Judith Butler 36 x 24 in.
The Future Leaks Out, 2023 Paint, twine and fiber fill on fabric Text by William S. Burroughs 26 x 23 x 1 in.
Smash the Control Machine, 2023 Paint, twine and fiber fill on fabric Text by William S. Burroughs 26 x 23 x 1 in.
ABOUT
Joy Ray’s interdisciplinary practice explores textiles as instruments of divination, adopting techniques like quilting and weaving to conduct inquiries into the spectral, speculative, and unreliable. Central to Ray’s research into the unknowable are methods of abstraction, concealment, illumination, and reconstitution that extract visual language from source materials like archival texts and oral histories.
Joy Ray lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work has been featured at the Museum of Quilts and Textiles in San Jose, California, the Hawaiʻi Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, and the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in Lancaster, California Ray’s work is held in the collection of MOAH and in private collections. She has been featured in publications including the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Artillery, and whitehot. Joy Ray holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College.