Danna Ray is a painter based in North Carolina. Working directly on location and from her studio in the Black Mountains, Danna creates landscapes using gestural marks to convey a sense of immediacy and connection with her surroundings. Surfaces are repeatedly built up and scraped away to animate elemental forms in ever-changing environments. By focusing on the natural world in a state of flux, she searches for a sense of presence, a response, a feeling of equilibrium in a world that is continually shifting.
EDUCATION
2003 - BFA, Communication Arts and Design, Cum Laude
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Danna Ray, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2021 Danna Ray, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2009 Danna Ray, Velouria, Seattle, WA
TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2015 Danna Ray & Allison May Kiphuth, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2014 Confluence: Danna Ray & Jen Ray, Tapp's Arts Center, Columbia, SC
2011 Through the Woods: Danna Ray & Judith Cassell, Artstream, Rochester, NH
2009 Higher Ground: Danna Ray & Jane Virga, Jan and Aya, Brooklyn, NY
SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 Nocturne, Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC
2023 ETA 33, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2022 Small Works | Big Impact, Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC
2022 ETA 31, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2021 Small Works | Big Impact, Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC
2020 ETA 28, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2019 ETA 26, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2019 Escape, Eleventh Street Arts, New York, NY
2019 ETA 25, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2017 Phoebe Harris, Danna Ray, Lindsay Stripling, Nahcotta Gallery, Portsmouth, NH
2016 Polygon Project, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
2016 ETA 20, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2016 What Goes Around, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2016 ETA 19, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2014 Nature, Forage Space, Scranton, PA
2014 ETA 16, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2014 Smaller Beckons, Tapp's Arts Center, Columbia, S
2014 ETA 15, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2014 fresh stART 2014, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
2013 June, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2013 ONEx100, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
2012 ETA 12, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2011 ETA 10, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2011 ETA 9, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2010 Aesopica, Rare Device, San Francisco, CA
2010 Summer, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2010 The Great Outdoors, Pony Club Gallery, Portland, OR
2010 Chromatic, Lark and Key, Charlotte, NC
2010 The Animal Show, Pterodactyl, Philadelphia, PA
2009 ETA 5, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2009 June, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2008 ETA 4, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH
2008 ETA 3, Nahcotta, Portsmouth, NH