A 2020 Salina Biennial artist who draws on the real and implied is now showing her art in the Salina Art Center.
Jennifer Ray's solo show, In Range, is scheduled to be in the Education Wing of the Salina Art Center, 242 South Santa Fe Avenue, through Jan. 3, 2021. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is free and donations are welcome. Masks are required by all visitors.
Ray is a Wichita-based artist and educator. She received her MFA in Photography from Columbia College and BA in Studio Art from Oberlin College. In Range is a documentation of objects Ray finds at open shooting ranges – improvised targets that have been abandoned, leaving traces of their previous owners. She manipulates these found objects, treating them as sculptural material and photographing them on-site as if she were in the studio.
With her arrangements, Ray draws on the real as well as the implied; she works to connect the present fact to the histories of violence in the United States. Though there are clues to their identities, she avoids photographing the shooters themselves. Ray looks beyond simple matters of demographics toward the more fundamental reasons for our nation’s obsession. She’s interested in what unresolved strains of fear, anger, inequality, and hatred undergird our obsession with guns.
The 2020 Salina Biennial exhibition was funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and Salina Art Center Endowment Foundation.