Ray Harris is a Kaurna Yerta/Adelaide based artist working in primarily video, performance and installation.
Her work explores complexities, isolation and otherness of the self, negotiated through the dualites of
inner thought/feeling (installation)and outer action/ behaviour (video/performance).
She is also a curator, advocate and initiator of projects and studios. Ray is committed to furthering the SA arts through participation, support, spaces and opportunities. She has a Master’s degree from UNI SA, has won several grants and awards including Tatiara Art Prize 2023 and has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally including: The Samstag Museum, AEAF, Adelaide Festival, Hugo Michell Gallery, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Casula Powerhouse, Brenda May Gallery, Pirimid Sanat and Istanbul Contemporary Art Fair (Turkey) and SEEAF Art Festival (South Korea). Her work is held in 2 major collections Project 4L- Elgiz Museum Collection and The Borusan Collection (Turkey), and private collections (Australia) and has featured in publications such as Artlink, Art Collector, Broadsheet, Real time, Fine Print and ETC magazine (Canada).
Ray founded and directed Holy Rollers Studios, and now The Third Level Studios in the Adelaide CBD.
Ray led, curated and managed group exhibitions/ performance events at Holy Rollers, Soft Spot; Hard Feelings, Psychache (co-curator Adele Sliuzas) and The Scene is the seen (co-curator Rayleen Forester). Ray developed and produced independent artist-led Neoteric 2022 and Neoterica 2024, biennial survey exhibitions of 20 mid-career SA artists, 20 SA writers, catalogue, performances, and public programming in a non-gallery space, in the Adelaide Festival.
Selected Education
2010. Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours), University of South Australia
2014 Masters of Visual Art (Research), University of South Australia.
2009-2006 Chancellor’s Letter of Commendation, University of South Australia.
2011-2013. MF & MH Joyner Scholarship recipient
Selected Awards and Grants
2023 The Hospital Research Foundation Group - Creative Health Art Prize, winner main prize commendation
The Tatiana Art Prize Winner, Walkway Gallery
2023. Creative Australia Project Grant/ Arts South Australia Major Collaboration grant: Neoterica
2021 Arts SA Recovery Grant: Neoteric
Adelaide Fringe Eran Svigos Award for Best Visual Art for Ritual Nature at FUMA, Adelaide, SA
The Hospital Research Foundation Group - Creative Health Art Prize Finalist, Light Square Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2020 Fishers Ghost Award Finalist, Campbelltown Arts Center, NSW
2019 and 2016 Unitcare services Moving Image Award finalist and winner, SALA festival, Adelaide, SA
2017-2019 Arts South Australia IMP Project grant
2017. Finalist Whyalla Art Prize, Middleback Arts Centre, SA
2012 ‘The Churchie’ finalist, Griffith University Art Gallery, QLD
2010 -2011 Arts SA Project Grant and Helpmann Academy Grant
2010 Constance Gordon Johnson Sculpture and Installation award, University of SA, Adelaide SA
2001 Film Maker of the Future Encouragement Award, South Australian Film Corporation.
Selected Exhibitions: International
2024 Colorful Days To Come, Elgiz Museum, Instanbul, Turkey
2015-2017 Piramid Sanat, Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul Turkey
2016 Suncheon Bay International Eco Environmental Art Festival, Suncheon, South Korea
Deck Voyage, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey
Paradise I will and I’m going to Fall, Piramid Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey
2014 Common Ground: Earth, Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey
2013 Elgiz 13, Elgiz Museum, Instanbul, Turkey
2012 International Underground, Piramid Sanat Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
2009 Fantastic Borders, Gil and Moti Homegallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 Solastalgia, 3-month residency and exhibition, Sauerbier House, Port Noarlunga, SA
2021 Ritual Nature, Guildhouse FUMA Collections Project, FUMA gallery, Adelaide, SA
Ghostly Others, Floating Goose Studios, Adelaide SA
2020 ADHOCRACY, Vital Statistics, Port Adelaide SA and online
2019 Hunger of the Void, Praxis ARTSPACE, Bowden, SA
2018 Ghosts in the Machine, FELTspace, Adelaide, SA
2013 Ordinary Escapes and Other Magic, SASA Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2012 Parallel Worlds, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, TAS
Touch of a Vanished Hand, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2011 Hold me Close and Let me Go, AEAF, Adelaide SA
Selected Group
2023 Last Messages, Contemporary Art Tasmania and MOMA FOMA, Hobart, Tas.
Make/Shift Residency, workshop and exhibition, The Mill, Adelaide SA
2022 Neoteric, Adelaide Railway Station, Adelaide, SA
2021 1 5 0, Unley Museum, Unley, SA
2020 Fine Print, INTERIORS Issue, 2020
2019 The Scene is the seen, Holy Rollers Studios, Prospect SA, (co-curator, project and performer)
2018 Video Contemporary, Curator Kelly Gellatly director Ian Potter Museum, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, NSW
Psychache, Holy Rollers Studios, Prospect, SA, (co-curator, project and performer)
HoBiennale, Domain House, Hobart, TAS
2017 Soft Spot, Hard Feeling, Holy Rollers Studios, Adelaide, SA (curator, project and performer)
2016 Dug and Digging with, AEAF, Adelaide, SA
2015. CACSA Contemporary, 172 Morpett st. Adelaide, SA
Young Collectors, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, SA
Performance presence/Video time, curated by Anne Marsh, AEAF, Adelaide, SA
Blinc, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Elder Park, Adelaide
Do It (Adelaide), Samstag Museum, Adelaide, SA
2014 Subject to Ruin, Casula Powerhouse Arts Center, Sydney, NSW
Scanlines remix, Brenda May Gallery, Sydney, NSW
Young Collectors, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2013 Arte Magra, AEAF offsite at Adelaide City Council Art Pod, Adelaide, SA
Momentary, CACSA, Adelaide, SA
2012 ‘The Curchie’ Finalists exhibition, Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
FELT/space, Boxcopy ARI, Brisbane, QLD
2011 Dark/Light, InFlight ARI, Hobart, TAS
Young Collectors, Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, SA
Vague Possibilities, SASA Gallery, Adelaide, SA
2010. Structural Integrity, Next wave Festival, Melbourne, Vic
Heartlines, SASA Gallery, Adelaide, SA
Selected Text
2023 Alexis DeGaris, Make/shift at The Mill, fine print magazine, Issue 32: digital.
2022 Walter Marsh, In the Studios with Ray Harris, InReview, 1:19:2022.
2019 John Neylon, Inner and outer worlds at praxis ARTSPACE, Adelaide Review Issue #477
2016 Ray Harris, Step Inside my Container, fine print Magazine, Issue.8: The Body
Serena Wong, Dug and Dugging with, Artlink Magazine Online,
2015 Chris Reid, The Constructions of Photography: Five South Australian Artists, Broadsheet, 44.2
2014 Serena Wong, Review: Resonant Actions/Subjectify Me, Artlink vol.35 #1
2013 Juliette Peers, Ray Harris: Guileless and Monstrous, Artlink vol.33 #3
2012 Katrina Simmons, Veering Away and Other Dumb Apparatus (and Cover image) Etc Magazine, #97, Montreal, Canada
2012 Sera Waters, Undiscovered; Ray Harris, Australian Art Collector, Issue 60, April to June 2012
2011 Sera Waters, Ray Harris Hold me Close and Let me Go, review, Artlink Vol.31 #4, December.
Chris Reid, The Actor in the Gallery, Realtime on-line edition 106, Nov. 8, 2011.
Ken Bolton, September Song - Goodtime Charlie, aeaf.org.au/events/critical-writing.html
2011 Sera Waters, Repetitive Crafting, presented AAANZ conference, Printed in Craft and Design Enquiry, Issue 4, 2012,
Selected Other Experience
2024 Neoterica exhibtion lead and curator 20 SA mid-career artist exhibition with 20 writers, catalogue, talks, performances in a
non-gallery space in a non-gallery space in The Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Railway station, Adelaide, SA
2023 Presenter at Nebula, Country Arts SA professional development program for visual artists, The Lab, Adelaide SA
2022-2023 Presenter to professional studies class at Central School of Art, on starting and running studios and projects.
2022 Director and founder of The Third Level Studios, Adelaide CBD, SA
2021-22 Neoteric exhibition lead 20 SA mid-career artists, SA 20 writers, catalogue, talks, performances in a non-gallery space in
The Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Railway station, Adelaide, SA
2021 Cinematic Experiments, Professional development project, The Mill in partnership with artist Margie Medlin and Mecury CX
2019 Panellist, Guildhouse Symposium, From Studio to Gallery; NAVA ARI sector meeting, Adelaide, SA
2017 AGSA Neo Teen workshop facilitator, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
2015 Founder and director of Holy Rollers Studios, studios/hall/gallery, including curation and projects.
2010- 2015 Co-Director of FELTspace Gallery ARI, Adelaide, SA
2010 Co-Founder Peer Studios, Adelaide, SA
Collections
Elgiz Museum Collection and The Borusan Contemporary Collection, Turkey, private collections Aus.