Jonathan Michael Ray

b. High Wycombe, England 1984
Lives and works Cornwall, England

Email: jonathanmichaelray[at]gmail.com
Instagram: @jonathanmichaelray

Comprising of sculpture, craft, photography, drawing and video, much of Jonathan Michael Ray’s multi-disciplinary art practice is deeply connected to his surroundings, and the places he encounters. His work begins with discovering and collecting an ever-growing jumble of historical references, stories, ideas and mysteries assigned to artefacts, material and landscape. 

No matter the medium Ray works in, there are often elements of collage and assemblage present. He regularly uses found objects, imagary and text, directly alongside his own, appropriating their symbolism or feeling seamlessly within the new context and meaning of the artwork. As well as working on and with material taken from or in connection to a landscape, another side to his work is the collecting, repurposing and reworking of historical artefact, most clearly seen in his antique stained glass collage works.

By layering and combining stories, material and process in this way, Jonathan is trying to look beyond the surface of a purely literal understanding of the complex world around us, and the work invites us to do the same.

Gallery representation by Bo Lee & Workman

Interviews and articles:
Ruling Glass by Holly Black in World of Interiors
The Voice in the Shadow review by Ina Cole in Sculpture Magazine
Ancestral Voices by Martin Holman in Drift Cornwall
What Lies Beneath by Jonathan Michael Ray in TATE ETC. Issue 55
Sensing the Palimpsest of Memory by Janice Li on Synesthesia and DATEAGLE
Friend of the Artist Vol. 10, Interview by Tim Ralston
Floorr Magazine Vol.16, Interview by Brooke Hailey Hoffert

Selected CV

Education:
2014-2016: MFA Fine Art Media, Slade School of Art, University College London
2004-2007: BA Hons Fine Art, Nottingham Trent University
2003-2004: Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Bucks Chilterns University College

Exhibitions:
2024:
This Country, curated by Forest+Found for London Craft Week, Crafts Council Gallery, London, UK
Become an object, Tremenheere Gallery, UK
A Skin Made Porous, Anima Mundi Gallery, UK
Ud Rocashaas, Hweg Gallery, UK

2023:
Exeter Contemporary Open, Exeter Phoenix Gallery, UK
The Word at Roche, Stone Carving and Wall Hangings, NewArtCentre, UK
Sennen Summer Fayre, The Fayre, Sennen, UK
The Voice in the Shadow, Bo Lee & Workman, UK (solo)

2022:
this is Not a Curated Exhibition III, Galleria Ramo, Como, Italy
Long Way Home, Anima Mundi, UK (solo)
Motorhead under Kenidjack, World Service, UK
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Jonathan Michael Ray, TATE ST IVES, St Ives, UK
FLOCK, Bo Lee and Workman, Bruton, UK

2021:
A Very Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary, Hastings, UK
Gathering, Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth, UK
Mono No Aware, Auction House, Redruth, UK (solo)
The Artists’ Oracle, White Crypt Gallery, London, UK
Dreamlands part 1, OHSH, London, UK
Meet me at the cemetery gates, Art of Grief, Penzance, UK (solo)
National Sculpture Prize 2021 Finalists, Broomhill Estate, Devon, UK
Gathering, Grays Wharf, Penryn, UK

2020:
InRoads, Galleria Ramo, Como, Italy
3.1, bo.lee gallery, London, UK

2019:
Unbounded, Eden Project, Bodelva, UK
Bury Me With It, Newlyn Art Gallery, Newlyn, UK (solo)
The Cave and the Sky, Thirdbase, Lisbon, Portugal
Moor Way Bones, Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, UK
New Media Art, CICA Museum, Seoul, South Korea

2018:
“There is nothing whatever do not look like what it was since I can remember”, Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, UK (solo)
Surfaces, Loosen Art, Rome, Italy
It sounds like it weighs a ton, Garden Walk, London, UK

2017:
Material Light, Kochi Biennial, India
Beneath and Between, White Crypt Gallery, London, UK (with Richard Müller)

2016:
Clifford Chance Postgraduate Printmaking Exhibition, Clifford Chance, London, UK
Floating Worlds, Safehouse1, London, UK
A Cave With A View, Charlton Gallery, London, UK
Making Do, Slade School of Fine Art UCL, UK

2015:
Imagine, Londonewcastle Arts Program, London, UK

2013:
Le Studio Show, Galerie Bifurski, Montréal, Canada (solo)

Commissions:
2023: Lith, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Cornwall, UK
2022: Crucible, London School of Economics, London, UK in partnership with ARTIQ

Artist Residencies and Awards:
2023: From One To Another, Cornwall x Scotland Exchange Residency, Linkshouse, Orkney, UK supported by Visual Art Scotland, Wilhelmina Barnes Graham Trust and Pier Arts Centre, Orkney
2021: National Sculpture Prize Finalist, Broomhill Estate, Devon, UK
2021: Master Class 2021, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
2019: Hogchester Arts Residency Programme, Charmouth, UK
2019: Thirdbase Studio Residency, Lisbon, Portugal
2018-19: Porthmeor Studios Graduate Award supported by European Regional Development Fund via Cultivator Cornwall, UK
2016: Hong Kong Baptist University Artist in Residence, HKBU AVA Kaitak, Hong Kong
2016: Slade Summer School Artist in Residence, Slade School of Fine Art UCL, UK