In Between Dreams, Opening May 17

Making art doesn’t always make sense. Georgia-based creative José Ray knows this firsthand. “I often fool myself into believing that I’ve figured out the formula to my process,” he says. “Then the very next piece takes that idea, dumps it out onto the studio floor, kicks it out onto the lawn, and reassembles it into something I can’t even make sense of but find myself falling in love with.” A native Midwesterner, Ray grew up in a blue-collar household in the middle of Kansas. “There weren’t a lot of opportunities for me,” he remembers. “I stumbled around for a while until the doldrums of the 9-to-5 had me searching for something more.” In 2004, he packed his bags and headed for Savannah College of Art and Design, where he learned how to make nature-inspired mixed-media pieces using everything from ink markers to spray paint. “They are all sealed up with resin, which helps to lock in all of those different elements and even allows me to do some textural layering between multiple pours of resin,” the artist explains. This spring, he will exhibit a series of “floral explosions” at Grand Bohemian Gallery in Biltmore Village. Viewers can expect canvases filled with springtime shades and blossoming blooms.