Between Minimalism and craft: a comprehensive appraisal of Los Angeles sculptor Charles Ray

This catalog accompanies the 2022 double exhibition of Charles Ray’s work at the Centre Pompidou and the Bourse de Commerce (Pinault Foundation). With approximately 30 pieces that depict humans, plants and vehicles in his favored materials of wood and metal, this publication explores the artist’s critical relationship with Minimalism and the uncompromising perfectionism apparent in his work.

Whether recreating fallen trees down to every nook and cranny or conjuring a certain vulnerability in his life-size steel figures, Ray’s pieces are characterized by a formal intricacy that lends an almost uncanny realism to his sculptures in spite of their sometimes unusual scale. In his meticulous attention to detail, Ray invites viewers to examine his sculptures with similar intensity. Ray’s work, which clearly draws from a minimalist-formalist focus on material as it explores the possibilities of three-dimensional representation, resists classification and must be experienced on an individual level.

Based in Los Angeles, American artist Charles Ray (born 1953) has worked for decades across mediums and materials to create photography series, performance pieces and sculptures. Ray has been the subject of solo exhibitions around the world, and his work has been featured in Venice Biennales in 1993, 2003 and 2014, and in five Whitney Biennials. He is currently represented by Matthew Marks Gallery in New York.