Solo Exhibition, San Francisco

Ray Beldner: Portraits

Catharine Clark Gallery

November 5-December 23, 2011

Two bodies of drawings and prints that explore the celebrity image and the media.

 Osama 06.01.11, 2011

Artist Reception: Saturday, November 5th, 4-6pm

Portraits: 101 is a series of images made by collecting the first one hundred and one images I find while performing a Google image search of a particular subject's name on a specific day. The image searches are for particular celebrities, artists, sports figures, politicians, or spiritual leaders. Each subject is well known in his or her field, and at least 101 results were available for each online search.  Using Photoshop, I layer each of the 101, individual jpeg images to form an abstract, "meta-portrait." The result, while subtle, reinforces the collective idea or the essence of the publicly held image of that person. The portraits are time-specific since each Google search, performed on a certain day, yields a unique result.

Each of the drawings in this series, Drawn by the Hand Of, was made without brush or pen. Wearing rubber gloves I make from the casts of other people's hands, I dip the fingers of my gloved hand in ink and apply them directly to the paper to make marks. Each cast glove, with its unique shape and fingerprints, is conceptually related to the picture it has created: e.g., Michael Jackson "drawn by the hand of a young boy," Philip Garrido "drawn by the hand of a young girl," etc.  The subjects of the drawings range from pop stars to politicians to child molesters and serial killers. People whose faces or personas have somehow captured my and the public's imaginations. The gloves are drawing tools and a way for me to physically embody someone familiar to me. More importantly, the act of literally drawing with someone else's hand highlights and problematizes the relationship between the subject, the artist, and the viewer.

Catharine Clark Gallery
150 Minna Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
415.399.1439
www.cclarkgallery.com