The Culture of Art through Experience

Joanne Artman Gallery
Aug 19, 2018 8:56PM

In the last decade, popular culture has become more involved in public art exhibitions and installations as social media has made them more accessible to the masses on an international scale. Platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have created a web community that promote the sharing of photos and videos of individual experiences, spurring a demand for more riveting and immersive spectacles. Viewers want their interactions with art to ignite all 5 senses. The touch, taste, sound, and smell of artworks now rival the importance of what is seen.

Yayoi Kusama’sInfinity Mirrors (image courtesy of The Broad)

Within the past year, traveling exhibitions in New York such as Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors, have attracted unprecedented crowds. This is due to the inclusive nature of such shows, inviting each guest to explore the work without rules or regulations and to make his or her own memory with each piece. Such possibilities raise an interesting dilemma not only for the artist to consider but also for each and every member of the audience. Is it as valuable to make a work that one cannot physically interact with but rather must “feel” from a distance, using only the light passing through his or her irises?

          Ray Turner’s paintings bridge the gap between art that is metaphysical and that which is tangible through the connection between skin and matter. His portraits demand that the viewer suspend their assumptions on what a face can be and instead follow the lines and undulations of the paint as it traverses the canvas. The texture of the thick and heavy paint tempts both touch and taste, uncannily appearing to feel like dripping ice cream and hardened concrete. Imagination runs away with the endless possibility for iterations of Turner’s faces. This dream-like trance is steadied only by the continuous urge to reach out and infiltrate the work, becoming the foreign figure.

Ray Turner
Epicurious
Joanne Artman Gallery

Paintings, unlike sculptures and installations, are historically supposed to be mounted on walls and viewed from the ground. In order to invigorate this tradition with a new energy, artists like Turner create new types of canvases such as glass arrays scaling a wall. Ray Turner’s faces are an example of modern painting installation that elevates the status of painting to that of the popularized exhibitions seen around the world and on our phone screens.


To see Ray Turner's work in person visit JoAnne Artman Gallery for the Artist Reception Thursday, September 13th, 2018 from 6pm-8pm

HALF NAKED: Featuring RAY TURNER  ||  511A West 22nd St. New York NY 10011  ||  www.joanneartmangallery.com

Joanne Artman Gallery