9/10/11

Art Review: "Rex Ray Clowns"

One day a couple years ago, I was clowning around on Bowienet, and as usual, I got a little carried away and then, literally, BLOWN AWAY when I received the below collage as a response from the well-known artist Rex Ray:

And I don't know what it all means "FU", "ForU", "FapU" or whatever, but to be so noted by one of the world's greatest contemporary fine artists, is indeed, quite an honor. Nevertheless, I plan on creating some kind of artistic response soon. So stay tuned!

Anyway, just a couple of days ago, Mr. Ray unveiled a truly stunning new series of paintings entitled "Rex Ray Clowns":



Up until now, this highly acclaimed artist has mostly been known for his prolific fine art work in collage, graphic design, interior design, commercial art and popular entertainment media.

However, this new series marks a significant development in Ray's stellar career and presents a whole new remarkable side of the artist's true talent and incredible vision. What makes this recent launch so appealing is Ray's photorealistic style of painting or Trompe-l'œil which, essentially, brings these cartoon character portraits to life in a kind of surreal "Disneyesque" manner.

At first look, with all of the clowns clustered together on his new Ha Ha Said The Clowns site, some early reviews have said that this new set is "scary" or "evil" in a positive way of course. And, obviously, some of the paintings do depict such human emotions and personifications.

However looking closer at each individual portrait, it is clearly seen that these oils encapsulate many other human expressions of sadness, happiness, silliness, and love. In a very clever style that is not unlike life itself, Ray presents all of these emotions through the use of prominent smiling faces in these caricatures, thus giving us an even higher level of perspective into his true artistic genius.

To read more news about Rex Ray, please visit his official website.

7 comments:

  1. --"art" as reply---
    http://news.3yen.com/wp-content/images/ruse.png

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  2. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Hilarious! Thank you very much Admiral-sama. Well, the previous project that I told you about earlier has now been temporarily shelved. And the above-mentioned "response" has turned into a kind of tribute piece that I "think" is almost finished. More later. Cheers!

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Thanks Emma. Nah, it's all good and just a kind of inside joke we run on over at http://www.davidbowie.com

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  5. These paintings are now on exhibit at Four Barrel Coffee in San Francisco.

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  6. The clown series might carry some emotional nostalgic fear regarding childhood experiences with clowns for some but for me the Blackface clown casts a shadow on the series as a whole. I'm surprised no one else is discussing it, that public spaces are hanging it and im disgusted that such a racist and clear historical reference is part of something people are admiring for it's stylistic novelty.

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  7. Thank you Anonymous. But my view is that Mr. Ray just painted an African-American clown. I am quite certain that any racist reference was not intended. The reason why no one is talking about it is because you are the only one who thinks that way. Also, If you google African-American clowns you will clearly see that:

    A. There are indeed many African-American clowns.

    B. They sometimes wear white paint on their faces.

    C. They sometimes wear black paint on their faces.

    D. They sometimes enlarge their lips for comic effect.

    E. You need to get a clue!

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