The Enemy of Average! Wild Surfwear- USA Made

Charles Ray is a contemporary sculptor in based in the Los Angeles region. He received his BFA from the University of Iowa. He then went onto receive his MFA from Rutgers University. In his college years, Ray's inspirations came from the developments in the Modernist sculpture movement. 

 He continued sculpting after graduating and was given his first solo show in 1971. The show was titled "One-Stop Gallery" and is credited with redirecting the canon of 20th century sculpture. Ray's work is thought to fully encapsulate motifs of modern sculpture because it appeals to no particular period. 

 Throughout his career Ray's work is tends to dip in and out of minimalism. On the other hand he goes through phases were the sculptures require massive amounts of labor. I like this about him because his process is never stagnant. It is always changing dependent on what his interests are at the time. Ray has been the recipient of several awards and has been shown in many prestigious institutions, such as MOCA as well as the Whitney.

In 2009, Ray installed his first ever outdoor sculpture which triggered his interest in working outside, installing work outside of the gallery setting. He did several commissioned outside installations across major cities in Italy and France. Most recently in 2015, the Art Institute of Chicago held a large one man retrospective of Ray's work focusing on the years 1997-2014. 

On view at The Broad in Los Angeles.

Vieira da Silva was born in Lisbon, Portugal on June 13th 1908. She took a very devoted interest in drawing at a young age. By the age of eleven she had started her studies at the Academia de Belas-Artes. Silva was quickly picked out due to her obvious superior talents and taken to study beyond the boundaries of the academic system with the Portuguese masters of the time. Among these masters included the painter Fernand Léger, the sculpture Antoine Bourdelle, and engraver Stanley Hayter.

 In 1928, Silva was prompted to move to Paris in order to further study sculpture. Once in Paris however, this move triggered something in Silva to pursue painting over sculpture. By the time 1930 came around she was already exhibiting her paintings around the city. She was an instant hit because her thick complexly layered paintings were unplaceable for that time. In her work she dealt with the nuances of developing space and then destroying said space, as well as the existence of time. 

 At the outbreak of World War II, Silva and her husband Arpád moved to Brazil. There they stayed until 1947, all the while staying busy creating paintings upon paintings and exhibiting them throughout Brazil. Together they returned to Paris in 1947. Silva continued to be a relevant figure in the world of painting up until her death in 1992.