Ray Turner’s PSI: Paint Scene Investigation

“Ray Turner’s startling new work expands upon the portraits on glass that he is known for, presenting the conceptual ramifications of paint itself as subject matter. By titling this ambitious exhibition, Compendium 2, Turner displays nothing less than a visual treatise on paint, exploring its essence as a vehicle for expression and illusion, using both color and absence of color. The show’s title takes its cue from the sculpture Compendium (1991), a work made early in Turner’s career while still in the spell of classic minimalism and directly inspired by the painted reliefs of Lawrence Carroll. Like the work of that artist – and unlike the pure forms of Lewitt or McCracken – Turner’s wooden cube is a study in the vicissitudes of lived experience, painted with gnarly layers of white and black, distressed by gouges and imperfections.  ”

- Michael Duncan