Description
Chrysoto (Detail) 1000 PC Heye Jigsaw Puzzle
Heye Jigsaw Puzzle Chrysoto (Detail) is Part of the Art of Rex Ray Collection.
Rex Ray was born Michael Patterson, the son of Louise and Charles Patterson, on a U.S. army base in Germany. He grew up in Colorado Springs and moved to San Francisco in 1981.
He was a San Francisco based fine artist whose work exuded beauty with a subversive edge stemming from an attitude grounded in alternative sub-culture. Abstract and handcrafted, with a retro-futuristic feel, Rex Ray’s work was always identifiable, whether seen on museum or gallery walls, in hip restaurants and boutique hotels or on books, CD cover, rock poster and Jigsaw Puzzles.
He was also a celebrated graphic designer. He has created work for Apple, Dreamworks, Sony Music, Warner Brothers, City Lights Publishers, Matador Records, Serpent’s Tail, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizzoli, Powerhouse, Mute Records and Crown Books. His package designs for David Bowie, as well as for Joe Satriani, Diamanda Galás, Matmos, and Deee-Lite, have earned him an international reputation for his innovation in type and with original photographs, drawings, and collage. He has designed over 100 historic Bill Graham Presents rock and roll tour posters, including ones for The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, REM, Bjork, U2, and Radiohead.
After earning his degree from the San Francisco Art Institute, he designed digital graphics for nightclubs and rock’n’roll concerts. The first T-shirts and posters were produced for a political advocacy organization called Act Up. At this point he embraced graphic software and created artwork based on his own imaginative ideas.
In the early 1990s, Rex moved away from his computer graphics business and returned to studio work. He started painting fine art marked by the use of parabolic line forms and other psychedelic pop art images. He also began producing collages that incorporated bright colours, simple lines and digital floral patterns.