RAY KASS
(Short Resume)
Higo Garden
1360 North Fork Rd., Christiansburg, VA 24073
Bus.Tel: (540) 381- 4255
Cell# (540) 818-0299
1715 Lexington Ave., No. 1, NY, NY 10029
e-mail: raykass@vt.edu

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Master of Fine Arts Degree (Painting), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Minor in 20th Century Art History and Criticism.

PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS
2003 – Present Professor Emeritus of Art ,Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
1977 – 2003 Professor of Art (Painting Program) Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA
Present-1980 Founder and Director, Mt. Lake Symposium and Art Workshops.*
Present - 1988 Board of Directors (founding member) and National Advisory Committee, The Folk Art society of America
Guest Curator, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
(Morris Graves: Vision of the Inner Eye & catalogue essay)

GRANTS (Artist)
1985-84 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Artist's Fellowship
1981 National Endowment for the Arts - Individual Artist's Grant
1973 Blanche E. Coleman Award, - (Study in Europe), Boston, Mass.

EXHIBITIONS - Selected Solo Exhibitions

2009 Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian Sate University, Boone NC, Trays and Tondos, and Recent Works, Main Gallery, Mar. 6 – June 6, 2009

2008 Olin Gallery, Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia

2007 Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA, April 13-May 31

- Baumgartner Gallery, 526 W. 25th St. NYC, Jan 13 – Feb 20

2005 ZONE, Chelsea Center for the Arts, 601 W. 26th St. NYC, Oct. 12 – Nov. 14, 2005

-Burroughs Chapin Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC April 20 – May 29

2004 Emory & Henry, University Gallery, Emory, Virginia (April24 – July 7)

2003 Reynolds Gallery, Richmond VA, Nov. 7, 2003 – Jan 3, 2004

- Montgomery Museum, Christiansburg, VA, New Silk, (Sept.-Oct.)

2002 A.V.C. Contemporary Arts, 41 E. 57th St. NYC ( Oct.16 - Nov. 16)

Jordan House Center for Creative Arts, Lexington, VA,
Sept.14 – Oct.27,2001

- Japan Art Forum (JARFO), Kyoto, May – June 2001

- Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA Dec.8 – Jan. 27, 2001

2000 - Hunt Gallery, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA (March – April)
1999 - Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA (May)

1998 650 Madison Avenue Exhibition Program, organized by
Randolph & Tate, NYC, June – Oct. 1, 1998

Awa No Sato Cutural Pavillion, Tokushima, Shikoku, Japan
(Feb.-March 15, 1998).
1997
Horino Memorial Museum, Kyoto, Japan (Dec.-’97)
“Art In Machiya: 1997”

1997 - Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (April - Aug.)
ACCOUNTS, (An ongoing series of hoonorary exhibitions by
artists who have made a significant contribution to Southern cultural).
New works in oil and watercolor and beeswax, accompanied by an
illustrated brochure and critical essay entitled “Drawing in Place”
by Susan Lubowsky-Talbott , Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Reynolds Gallery, (March 22 - April 20) 1514 W. Main St., Richmond, VA.

1995 Franz Bader Gallery, (April ‘95) 1500 K St. NW, Washington, D.C.

Reynolds Gallery, (Jan.-Feb.’95) 1514 W. Main St., Richmond, VA.

1993 Franz Bader Gallery, (March 23 - April 10) 1500 K St. NW, Washington, D.C.
- Hanes Fine Art Center, The Glass Gallery, (Oct. 1 - Oct. 24) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC

- Art Museum of Western Virginia, "Images of The Winged Earth",
A Retrospective, (Sept. - Dec.) Roanoke, Va.

1991 Seven Paintings at Shelby, Lexington Avenue, between 74th and 75th, New York, NY, Organized by Schmidt-Bingham Gallery, 41 West 57th St. New York, NY.

1991 Reynolds Gallery, 1514 W Main St., Richmond, VA.

1990 Penninsular Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA.

1989 Hewlett Gallery, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburg, PA.

1988 Boston College, Brookline, MA.

1988,84,79 Osuna Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1987 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (May-June).

1986,81,77,75,72 Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY .

1980 Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC (May).

1974 Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 Chi-Yun, Breath Resonance in Contemporary Art: Museum Studies Seminar Exhibition, Lora Robins Gallery, Univ. of Richmond, Richmond, VA, April 2 – July 12, 2009 (Ann Tarantion + Kate McGraw, Deborah Ellis, Heide Trepanier, Ray Kass, Ron Johnson)

2007 “Fluid Fields” – Watercolors –The Painting Center, 52 Greene St. NYC, curated by Susan Shatter, Feb. 27 – Mar. 1, 2007
- “Who’s Afraid if Virginia Wood”, Quirk gallery, Richmond, VA, Jan. 5, 2007 – Feb. 18, 2007

2006 “Smoked”: John Cage, Stephen Addiss & Ray Kass, Univ. of Richmond Museums, Lora Robbins Gallery, Sept. 14 – Dec. 17, 2006
CONSTRUCTS, Rawls Museum Arts, Courtland, VA July 28-Sept.2

2005 “Mixed Bag” -Group Exhibition, ZONE: Chelsea Center for the
Arts, 601 W. 26th St., NYC, December 1-17, 2005 

- Cotuit Center For the Arts, Cotuit, MA, “WATERFLOW”, July 15–Aug.28

- ZC Collections     ZONE: Chelsea Center for the Arts,
601 W. 26th St. NYC,April 5 - 15, 2005

- Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV – one 30 foot-long painting
“Broad Channel”.

2004 DFN Gallery, Franklin St., NYC “Watercolor” (April – June)

2003 “Wabi-Sabi In The West”, A.V.C. Contemporary Arts Gallery, NYC

Curator’s Choice, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Wash. D.C.Jan,’02

“EAST-WEST”: John Cage, Jiro Okura and Ray Kass, Hillwood Art Museum, Brookville, NY

WATERCOLOR, New York Studio School, 8 W. 8th St. NYC, Oct. 15 – Nov. 16, curated by David Cohen and Susan Shatter

2001 Burn: Artists Play With Fire. Including Bill Viola, Chris
Burden, Yves Klein, John Cage, Willi Cole, Ana Mendieta and others. Curated by Neil Watson, Norton Museum of Art, W. Palm Beach, FL
3/31- 6/3/.(traveling exhibition with catalogue)

- Music In My Soul (John Cage, Nick Cave, Sam Gilliam,
Mike Henderson, Dennis Oppenheim, Miriam Shapiro, William t. Wiley
April 19 – July 1, 2001, curated by Gayle Paul, Courthouse Galleries,
Portsmouth Museums, Portsmouth, VA

“Water” :Four Artists: John Cage, Gordon Cook, Idele Weber
and Ray Kass, Schmidt Bingham Gallery, 41 E. 57th St. NYC, June 7 –
August 14

-Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, VA, 200 Years of Virginia
Landscape”, (catalogue), July- Dec. 2000, travels to Art Museum of Western Virginia , Roanoke, VA - March 2001

1998 Reynolds Gallery, Gallery artists exhibition for the annual meetingg of SECAC (Southeastern College Art Conference in Richmond), Oct. - Nov.

1996 - 97 Uncommon Ground: - 10 Artists in Virginia, (Marc h 2 - May 12) Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia (color catalogue) and essay by Julia Boyd. Travelling exhibition.

1995 Re-Picturing Abstraction -21 Artists - Sponsored by simultaneous exhibits in The Virginia Museum, Anderson Gallery of VCU, 1708 and Marsh Gallery of University of Richmond (color catalogue) essays by Arthur Danto, Chris Gregson and others.

- From These Hills:: Contemporary Art in the Southern Appalachian Highlands ,William King Regional Art Center, Abingdon, VA, May 20 - July 16, 1995

Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, Gallery Artist's Group Show.

Mt. Lake Workshop Exhibition, Muscarelle Museum, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, April 3 - May 16 (John Cage, Ray Kass and Jiro Okura)

- Philadelphia Museum of Art, “Drawing Sounds”, in Honor of John Cage.

1992 Arts Du Monde, Spring St., NYC, “Watercolors” Peter Ydeen, Keith Crown & Ray Kass, brochure with critical essay by Dr. Howard Risatti

Schmidt Bingham Galley, NYC, New York,For the Preservation of Nature, A travelling exhibition benefiting the Nature Conservancy, (May-July).

Mixed-Use District, P.S.I. and The Clocktower Gallery, New York, NY
(September-November).

"Monumental Space Variations," curated by Donald B. Kuspit, One Penn
Plaza, New York, NY (September 9-January 9).

1983 Painting in the South, 1680-1980, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a survey of 300 years of painting related to a southern context; a major catalogue and text accompanied this travelling exhibition

Selected Bibliography

2007 Roberts-Pullen, Paulette, Free Range Palette, Ray Kass and Richard Serra at Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA. (with color cover photo on Art Section), Pg.24 Style Weekly, May 2, 2007

2006 Goodman, Jonathan, Art In America, pg.136, February 2006
Ray Kass at ZONE: Chelsea - exhibition review.

2004 Ryan, Paul, ART PAPERS, 4/‘04, review of Reynolds Gallery show

Gronlund, Melissa, ARTNews, pg. 129, Feb. 2003, (review with color
illustration) of Ray Kass exhibition at A.V.C. Contemporary Art Gallery, NYC

Karlins, N.F. “Oriental Breeze” – review of Wabi-Sabi in the West – Artnet, August, 2003

2002 New York Times, July 7, 2002, Pg. 10, LI, Helen Harrison. Compositions…For Seeing – Not Listening, Review of hillwood Art Museum Mt. Lake Workshop exhibition- “EAST- West” John Cage/, Jiro Okura & Ray Kass

-East-West: John Cage, Jiro Okura and Ray Kass at the-
Mountain Lake Workshop," HillwoodArt Museum, Brookville, NEWSDAY, NY,Arts & Exhibitions section, L.I.,NY, July 5, 2002

Shingun, Japan Art Forum exhibition preview, Kyoto, Saturday, May 12, 2001, pg. 26

- McLeod, Deborah, Ray Kass: Watersides - Fire andWater (review of Reynolds solo-exhibiton), Style Weekly, Richmond, VA
Jan. 16, 2001, Pg. 33.

- Schudel, Matt, FIRE WORKS ! Artists Prove They've Got Talent To Burn in Pieces On display at the Norton Museum, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach, FL, Encore, pg. 3D, Sunday, April 22, 2001

2000 Proctor, Roy, A Sense of Place: Not your traditional landscape paintings, Richmond Times Dispatch, Section H, pg. H7, Sunday, December 17, 2000 (illutrated article on solo-exhibition at Reynolds Gallery).

1999 Kittredge, Kevin, “Of Darkness and Light”: Contemporary
Landscape show a the Art Museum of Western Virginia expands
horizons…” The Roanoke Times, Extra section, pg 1 – 3. Monday,
Nov. 1, 1999

1998 The Roanoke Times, New River Valley Current, Dec. 5, 1998,
Today’s Best Bets, pg. 3. (KYOTO/REKWOI exhibition – Armory

Patterson, Tom, Winston-Salem Journal, Sunday, June 29, pg. E4,
“Virginia artist captures the power and movement of water in show at
SECCA” (review of ACCOUNTS exhibition)

- Talbott-Lubowsky, Susan, “Ray Kass: Drawing In Place”, (illustrated brochure) Southeastern Center of Contemporary Art, Winston Salem, NC

- Gutierrez,Ed, The Japan Times, Sunday, June 22, “Zen, forms of nature help designers cross cultural lines” (review of Mt. Lake Workshop at Nosso Glass Pyramid)

1996 Boyd, Julia,Uncommon Ground: (color catalogue) Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia

1995 Roberts-Pullen, Paulette, All Natural: Paintings by a Visual Poet Marry The Concrete and The Mystical, Style Weekly, January 24, 1995, Richmond, Virginia.

- Bullard, Ce Ce, Where Order, Chaos Collide, Richmond Times Dispatch, Jan. 18, 1995, Flair column, w/cover photo illustration, Section D 2

1994 Risatti, Howard, The Mountain Lake Workshop.
Yancha, Nov./Dec. 1994, Kyoto, Japan,

- Jones, Arthur F., New Art Examiner, Pg 49, Review of Art Museum of Western Virginia - 20 yr. Survey Exhibit.

1993 Kuspit, Donald - Ray Kass - Images of The Winged Earth-Catalogue Essay - Art Museum of Western Virginia.

1992 Brothers, Leslie, A., New Art Examiner, pg 43, Review of Ray Kass' Exhibition at Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia.

- Owen, Paula, Artpapers, Vol. 16, No. 3 - Review of Ray Kass' Exhibition at Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, Virginia.

1990 Wolff, Theodore F., Christian Science Monitor, pg 11, How Nature Engage's, Challenges, and Inspires Artists: Review of Schmidt - Bingham Gallery Traveling Exhibition: For The Preservation of Nature.

1989 Raczka, Robert, New Art Examiner, Dec. pg 43, Review of Ray Kass'
Exhibition at The Hewlett Gallery, Carnegie Mellon Univ. Pittsburgh, PA.
John Yau, Ray and Jacob Kass at Allan Stone Gallery, Art in
America, NY, Summer issue, 1981,Vol. 69, No. 6, pp.130-31

(Selected) PUBLICATIONS (by Ray Kass)

2003 Sounds of The Inner Ear, Univ. of Washington Press, Seattle, WA, pgs. 38 – 54 (essay on Morris Graves - notes on John Cage & Mark Tobey)

Klange des Inneren Auges: Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, John Cage. Essay: Morris Graves, Meditation on Nature, pgs 24 – 36, Kunsthalle Bremen/Foundation Beyeler, Schirmer-Mosel, Munich, (in German-some English).

2001 Bernstein and Hatch, Writings Through John Cage's Music, Poetry, and Art, Univ. of chicago Press, 2001,(essay)Cage At the Mountain Lake Workshop, pgs. 244 - 259.
2000 Kass, Ray, “Morris Graves’ Instruments For a New Navigation”, Resurgence Magazine (May/June), Devon, Great Britain.
1994 Kass,Ray, "Paradise Garden and World Church of Folk Art,"Yancha, Nov/Dec. 1994 pg 11, Kyoto, Japan.
1992 Kass, Ray, The Paintings of Glenn Berry, Reece Bullen Gallery, Humboldt State University, Arcata, California Catalogue - 1992.
1991 Kass, Ray, Burton Callicott: Sharing a Vision, Memphis- Brocks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN.
1991 Kass, Ray, John Cage: Mt. Lake Workshop Diary 1990, Du, Zurich, Switzerland.
1988 Kass, Ray, John Cage: New River Watercolors, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.
1983 Morris Graves: Vision of the Inner Eye, (George Braziller Co. NY.1983)

Ray Kass is an artist and the founder of The Mountain Lake Workshop (1983); an ongoing series of collaborative and inter-related workshops centered in the environmental, cultural, and community resources of the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia. The workshops have resulted in many unique, collaborative works of art that have been widely exhibited. Artists who have completed several workshops at Mountain Lake (or are currently engaged in ongoing projects) include folk-artist Howard Finster, Japanese artist & sculptor and Jiro Okura, the late avant-garde composer, writer composer and artist John Cage, waste management installation-artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles (official artist in residence of the New York Sanitation Dept.), ceramic artist, poet and author M.C. Richards (author of Centering), Colorado-based “EcoArtist”, Lynne Hull, NYC East Harlem “street- artist”, James De La Vega, Zen art scholar and artist, Stephen Addiss, Paris-based sculptor and virtual-reality “light” artist, Jackie Matisse, and choreographer and modern dancer, Merce Cunningham,as well as Ray Kass himself, among many others.
Kass' individual workshops seek to provide an interface between the concepts and discipline-centered activities of those of the visiting-artists. An illustrated documentary catalogue, The Mountain Lake Workshop: Artists In Locale, by Dr. Howard Risatti, with an Introduction by Donald B. Kuspit (Virginia Commonwealth Univ., richmond, 1983) is available from the Anderson Gallery, V.C.U. or by contacting the Mt. Lake Workshop (raykass@vt.edu).
Ray Kass' paintings are represented by the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia

SELECTED ART WORKS IN PUBLIC/PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

• IridiumGroup, NYC
• Ogunquit Museum of Art, Ogunquit, Maine
• Altria (Phiilip Morris, Richmond, VA
• Sun Trust, Richmond, VA
• Phizer Corporation, NYC
• The Ospraie Fund, NYC, NY
• Crestar Bank, Richmond, VA
• Mastercharge, NYC, NY
• Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL
• Montogomery museum of Art, Montgomery, S.C.
• Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia.
• Longwood Fine Art Center, Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia.
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
• Ethyl Corporation, Richmond, Virginia.
• Craigie Inc., Richmond, Virginia
• R.R. Donelly Inc., Publishers, Chicago, Illinois
• Augusta Hospital Corp., Staunton, Virginia
• Proctor-Silex Corp., Richmond, Virginia
• Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia
• Hunton & Williams Law Firm, Richmond, Virginia
• McGuire, Woods, Battle & Booth, Richmond, Virginia.
• School of Public Health, UNC - Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
• Nations Bank, Roanoke, Virginia.
• North Carolina National Bank., Charlotte, N.C.
• Markel Inc. Richmond, VA
• NYNEX, Purchase, New York.
• State University of New York, Potsdam, New York.
• Smith Museum of Art, Amherst, Massachusetts.
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts.
• Griffin Art Center, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York.
• Tufts University Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts.
• Boston Public Library, Copley Square, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Commercial Union Assurance Company, Boston, Massachusetts.
• The Gillette Company, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Bocour Collection, Aquatec Color Company, New York, New York.
• Health Company, (HEALTHCO)Boston, Massachusetts.
• Arthur Anderson Company, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Brockton Art Center, Roger Dunn Drawing Collection, Brockton, Massachusetts.
• Best Products, Richmond, Virginia.
• Owens-Corning Fiberglass, Toledo, Ohio.
• IDS Financial Services Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Kidder Peabody, New York, New York
• Nomura Securities, New York, New York
• Allan Stone, New York, New York, and Bar Harbor, Maine
• Leonard Bocour, New York, New York
• The morris graves Foundation, Loleta, CA
• The Estate of John Cage, New York.
• The Estate of Willem de Kooning, Springs, New York
• Louis Kane, Boston Partners, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Mr & Mrs. Robert Kogod, Bethesda, Maryland.
• Mrs. Elizabeth Gallatin, Kittery Point, Maine.
• Fralin and Waldron, Roanoke, Virginia.
• New York NET, Purchase, New York.
• David Goode, Executive Suite, Norfolk and Southern, Norfolk, Virginia.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT

"Over a period of more than thirty five years, my out-of-doors water-media paintings of the natural world have developed in favorite locations in North Carolina, California, Maine, New Hampshire, and Virginia. Although abstract, my recent paintings are carefully derived from drawings and life-studies from nature, and attempt to represent the processes of nature at work rather than pictorial description. Although I feel that my painting directly responds to the environments that I work in, I usually do not paint from the landscape with the objective of achieving representational or "realistic" images. In fact, I have often made representational depictions of specific places after I have made many non-pictorial works in the same locale. This particular development reverses the usual assumption that "abstraction" develops from the confirmed experience of the study of "realism". My appreciation of the natural world is for the great variety of texture, light, form and eventful psychology that finds its maximum expression in its manifestations."

Ray Kass is an artist and the founder of The Mountain Lake Workshop (1983); an ongoing series of collaborative and inter-related workshops centered in the environmental, cultural, and community resources of the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia. The workshops have resulted in many unique, collaborative works of art that have been widely exhibited. Artists who have completed several workshops at Mountain Lake (or are currently engaged in ongoing projects) include folk-artist Howard Finster, Japanese artist & sculptor and Jiro Okura, the late avant-garde composer, writer composer and artist John Cage, waste management installation-artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles (official artist in residence of the New York Sanitation Dept.), ceramic artist, poet and author M.C. Richards (author of Centering), Colorado-based “EcoArtist”, Lynne Hull, NYC East Harlem “street- artist”, James De La Vega, Zen art scholar and artist, Stephen Addiss, and Paris-based sculptor and virtual-reality “light” artist, Jackie Matisse, as well as Ray Kass himself, among many others. Ray Kass' individual workshops seek to provide an interface between the concepts and discipline-centered activities of those of the visiting-artists. An illustrated documentary catalogue, The Mountain Lake Workshop: Artists In Locale, by Dr. Howard Risatti, with an Introduction by Donald B. Kuspit (Virginia Commonwealth Univ., richmond, 1983) is available from the Anderson Gallery, V.C.U. or by contacting the Mt. Lake Workshop (raykass@vt.edu).