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find nothing more thrilling than the discovery of a large,
new, artistic talent. Peter G.Ray, a forty-one year old Bulgarian
born painter, living in Montreal, is, in my view, a most
exciting painter to come along
in many years. He has it all: passion, intelligence, originality, and amazing
powers of eidetic visualization. His works combine the virtuoso, fine
brush, hypersensitivity of Dali with a vigor and utter freedom of Pollock. Technically
dazzling -indeed mesmerizing - Ray`s paintings show a profound
creative mind seeking spontaneous perfections. His pictures unite the extreme
opposites
of precision and improvisation, perverse sensualities and hard-hitting
machismo. Perhaps this capacity to unite extremes is what gives his recent works
a sense of largeness. And he is just beginning. He committed himself fulltime
to painting only four years ago. In any event, he is an important figure who
must
be followed closely.
..............In May of 2002 Ray saw a show of the New New Painters
at the galerie
d'arts Contemporains in Montreal. He was impressed and got to know
several members of the group. I met him through Joseph Drapell.
In essential ways, Ray was already formed when he encountered the
new acrylic painting. But the New New confirmed him in his move
toward large scale, free form, Pollock-type
painting, and he has embraced the high contrast, physical presence,
and glossy plastic surfaces of the New New. He brings to New New
an expressive density that only illusionistic detail can provide.
Like any truly new painter, expands the possible.
XXXXX> Peter G. Ray is also a writer. His first novel
"The Thinker" has been hailed by the literary as an important
achievement in modern Bulgarian literature.
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