Charles Ray: Figure Ground will be the artist’s first significant New York exhibition in over two decades. It will present Ray’s work not all together in a dedicated gallery, but interspersed throughout the museum, literally in the “space between” the works of the permanent collection. Often described as an artist’s artist, Charles Ray’s work resists simple characterization; it is not always obvious, for example, how much it exists in dialogue with artistic traditions of the past. The Met can illuminate this aspect of Ray’s work by providing an art historical context that few other museums around the world could. And it can provide an unparalleled opportunity for the artist to work in direct dialogue with his sources of inspiration and identification.
Charles Ray: Figure Ground
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”