{{short description|American artist (1956–2015)}} {{Use American English|date=April 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Rex Ray | alt = Rex Ray | birth_name = Michael Patterson<ref name="Whiting–2015" /> | birth_date = September 11, 1956 | birth_place = near Landstuhl, West Germany | death_date = {{Death date and age|2015|02|09|1956|09|11}} | death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | movement = | known_for = graphic design, collage, fine art | website = http://www.rexraystudio.com/ | alma_mater = San Francisco Art Institute }}
'''Rex Ray''' (born '''Michael Patterson'''; September 11, 1956 – February 9, 2015)<ref name="Whiting–2015" /> was an American collage artist and graphic designer, based in San Francisco.<ref name="Whiting–2015" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=A Picture is a Word: The Posters of Rex Ray |url=https://www.glbthistory.org/rex-ray |access-date=2026-04-18 |website=GLBT Historical Society |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Early life and education == thumb|Rex Ray at Gallery 16. Photo Credit: Griff Williams, 2009 Born as Michael Patterson on September 11, 1956, on a United States Army base near Landstuhl, Germany, and he was raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado.<ref name="Tray-2015" /> He started making art in childhood, and by the 1970s he was part of the mail art movement which was when he adopted the pseudonym "Rey Ray" based on a 1950s toy raygun brand of the same name.<ref name="PBS-2010" /> He said he changed his name to Rex Ray in order to start anew and be free of his past.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Curiel |first=Jonathan |date=2017-06-01 |title=Light of Ray |url=https://www.sfweekly.com/culture/art/light-of-ray/ |access-date=2020-01-30 |website=SF Weekly |language=en-US}}</ref>
He moved to San Francisco in 1981 to attend San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) where he studied with Sam Tchakalian, Kathy Acker, and Angela Davis before earning his BFA in 1989.<ref name="Tray-2015" /> He was one of the first artists to use Mac-based technologies, largely because of his work with The Residents, in the creative process to generate graphics and fine art.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Professor |first=The |date=2015-02-23 |title=The Professor Offers Excerpts From an Artistic Life, or Rex Ray X-Rayed |url=https://professorstevenskovholt.com/2015/02/23/the-professor-offers-excerpts-from-an-artistic-life-or-rex-ray-x-rayed/ |access-date=2026-04-18 |website=The Professor / Steven Skov Holt |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Ray combined his digital graphics with Xerography, handmade woodblock prints, newsprint, and magazine images to creative his signature style, which references decorative arts and 20th century movements such as dada, Fluxus, pop art, and especially midcentury modernism.<ref name=":1" />
== Career == Ray's early designs include the first T-shirt and posters for the San Francisco chapter of the AIDS activist group ACT UP; guerrilla marketing fliers and posters for queer night clubs and rock and roll shows; and book covers for independent presses such as City Lights Books and High Risk/Serpent's Tail.<ref name="Tray-2015" /><ref name=":1" /> He designed and performed with The Residents, as well as designed for David Bowie, among others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thebolditalic.com/rip-san-francisco-artist-and-cultural-icon-rex-ray-the-bold-italic-san-francisco-bce82bee8e8|title=RIP San Francisco Artist and Cultural Icon Rex Ray|date=2016-04-13|website=Medium|publisher=The Bold Italic|language=en|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
By the early 1990s he started a professional fine art practice.<ref name="Tray-2015" /> Ray had been one of the first artists to use Mac computer-based technology to create his art.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Erwert |first1=Anna Marie |date=2019-08-14 |title=Tour $1.6M live/work studio of celebrated San Francisco artist |url=https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Tour-1-6M-live-work-studio-of-celebrated-SF-14294179.php |access-date=2020-01-30 |website=SFGate |quote=Rex Ray, who died in 2015, was one of the first artists to use Mac-based technology in his art.}}</ref> He had two units in the Allied Box Factory building in the Mission District in San Francisco, one was his living space and the other was his art studio.<ref name="Whiting–2015" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sf.curbed.com/2019/8/7/20759096/ray-rex-allied-box-factory-loft-san-francisco|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807232909/https://sf.curbed.com/2019/8/7/20759096/ray-rex-allied-box-factory-loft-san-francisco|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 7, 2019|title=Late artist Rex Ray's Allied Box Factory loft lists for $1.599M|last=Keeling|first=Brock|date=2019-08-07|website=Curbed SF|language=en|access-date=2020-01-30}}</ref>
Ray referred to his artwork as "paintings" even though they were often collage-based and lacked any traditional painting techniques.<ref name="PBS-2010">{{Cite web |date=2010 |others=Joshua Hassel |title=CPT12 Presents: How to Make a Rex Ray, aired 2018 |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/rex-ray-how-to-make-a-rex-ray-g0ko4d/ |access-date=2020-01-29 |website=PBS |publisher=Colorado Public Television |at=approx. 2:00 and 31:00 |type=Video}}</ref> His source material was made with woodblock printing on colored paper. The sheets of printed paper were adhered to a canvas with a wet glue. As the glue got tacky, Ray would cut patterns into the papers, removing the extraneous paper, leaving the hand cut shapes to dry. Hi s large-scale canvases would require weeks of intensive labor and were composed of dozens of layers of cut, painted paper.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Desmarais |first=By Charles |date=2017-06-16 |title=Exuberant Rex Ray works not to be taken lightly |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Exuberant-Rex-Ray-works-not-to-be-taken-lightly-11225626.php |access-date=2026-04-19 |website=SFGATE |language=en}}</ref>
In 2008, Ray illustrated ''10,000 Dresses'', written by Marcus Ewert. The illustrations for the book were created using his cut-paper collage methods. The book was a 2010 Stonewall Honor Book in Children and Young Adult Literature,<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 September 2009 |title=Stonewall Book Awards List |url=http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt/award/stonewall/honored#2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209191623/http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt/award/stonewall/honored#2009 |archive-date=February 9, 2018 |access-date=January 3, 2026 |website=GLBTRT: American Library Association}}</ref> a 2009 American Library Association Rainbow Book<ref>{{Cite web |title=2009 Rainbow Book List |url=http://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks/archives/174}}</ref> and was a finalist for the 2008 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Literature.<ref>{{cite web |date=18 February 2010 |title=21st Annual Lambda Literary Awards |url=http://www.lambdaliterary.org/winners-finalists/02/18/lambda-literary-awards-2008-2/ |access-date=October 9, 2011}}</ref> Despite these being honored with these awards, 10,000 Dresses experienced mixed opinions on whether or not it was appropriate to teach to its intended audience of young children. <ref>{{Cite web |last=kanopi_admin |date=2022-12-07 |title=These 176 Books Were Banned in Duval County, Florida |url=https://pen.org/banned-books-florida/ |access-date=2026-04-19 |website=PEN America |language=en-US}}</ref>
Ray died February 9, 2015, in San Francisco after a five year battle with lymphoma.<ref name="Whiting–2015" /> He was remembered by The Guardian "as a major cultural force in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California, widely recognized for his collage work."<ref name="Tray-2015" /> Ray was also remembered by SFGate as a, "versatile graphic designer who created book covers, tour posters and album art in San Francisco for 35 years."<ref name="Whiting–2015" />
==Legacy== In 2019 GLBT Historical Society presented ''A Picture is a Word: The Posters of Rex Ray''. The exhibition, curated by Cydney Payton and Amy Scholder, surveyed the graphic works. Including his work with David Bowie, Radiohead, REM.<ref name=":1" />
The collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art includes 37 posters by Rex Ray for musical artists including David Bowie, The B-52s, and The Rolling Stones.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rex Ray |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/Rex_Ray/?sa=1 |access-date=2025-09-18 |website=SFMOMA |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2024, SFMoMA featured many of Ray's poster designs in ''Art of Noise'', an exhibition celebrating groundbreaking design shaping our music experience.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Art of Noise: Design Amplified |url=https://www.sfmoma.org/read/art-of-noise-design-amplified/ |access-date=2026-05-08 |website=SFMOMA |language=en-US}}</ref>
His work is also in the collections of the San Jose Museum of Art and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.<ref name="Whiting–2015" /> A drawing of Rex Ray by Veronica De Jesus is in the collection of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://collection.bampfa.berkeley.edu/catalog/7dfae105-6c6a-4493-8947|title=Rex Ray|access-date=2025-09-18|website=bampfa.berkeley.edu/}}</ref>
Archival collections of Ray’s work are preserved by the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland; and the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.
In September 2027, a retrospective of title ''Rex Ray: We Are All Made of Light'' will held at the Monterey Museum of Art in Monterey, California. The exhibition was curated by Griff Williams and Cydney Payton.
==Publications== *{{Cite book |title=10,000 Dresses |last=Ewert |first=Marcus |publisher=Seven Stories Press |others=Illustrated by Rex Ray |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-58322-850-0 |location=New York City}} *{{Cite book |title=Rex Ray: Art + Design |last=Ray |first=Rex |publisher=Chronicle Books |others=Foreword by Douglas Coupland |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8118-5975-2 |location=San Francisco}} *{{Cite book|title=Information|last=Ray|first=Rex|publisher=Rex Ray Inc.|others=Essay by Cydney Payton|year=2011|location=San Francisco}} *{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Griff |author-link=Griff Williams (painter) |title=Rex Ray We Are All Made of Light |last2=Killian |first2=Kevin |author-link2=Kevin Killian |last3=Barilleaux |first3=Rene P. |last4=Cole |first4=Norma |date=2017 |publisher=Chronicle Books |others=Gallery 16 |isbn=0982767161}} *Williams, Griff (2020) ''The Art of Rex Ray.'' (essays by Rebecca Solnit and Christian Frock). San Francisco: Chronicle Books. {{ISBN|978-1452177045}}
==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="Whiting–2015">Whiting, Sam (February 10, 2015). [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Collage-artist-Rex-Ray-dies-6071830.php Collage artist and designer Rex Ray dies]. SFGate. Accessed January 2020.</ref> <ref name="Tray-2015">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2015/feb/23/rex-ray-obituary|title=Rex Ray obituary|last=Tray|first=Liz|date=2015-02-23|work=The Guardian |access-date=2020-01-30|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> }}
== External links == * Video: [https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/75-reasons-to-live-rex-ray-on-andy-warhols-self-portrait/ 75 Reasons to Live: Rex Ray on Andy Warhol’s ''Self-Portrait''] (2010) from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) * Video: [https://video.kpbs.org/video/rex-ray-how-to-make-a-rex-ray-g0ko4d/ How to Make a Rex Ray] (2010, aired 2018) from Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, Rex}} Category:1956 births Category:2015 deaths Category:20th-century American male artists Category:20th-century American painters Category:21st-century American male artists Category:21st-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:American poster artists Category:Artists from San Francisco Category:Deaths from cancer in California Category:Mission District, San Francisco Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni Category:American graphic artists Category:American graphic designers Category:Deaths from lymphoma in California Category:Artists from Colorado Springs, Colorado