Aaron Ray spent as much time titling his work for the show
Pretender - showing this month at The 400 - as he did making the work itself. With Morrissey-length titles like "The president of Team Awkward has a crush" and "Manly woman in need of a man" that doesn't mean the work was made entirely quickly.
Pretender consists of highly-detailed drawings of people - five of them full body images on wood panels and the rest more traditional head and shoulder portraits on paper. The work on paper features drawings layered on top of brushstrokes, color washes and even some stencil work. The people in the drawings all have a wild-eyed look to them, more character sketch than realistic portrait. The pieces on wood are less translucent, they have a more solid presence on the board and more of a narrative quality, and, even without the titles, one can imagine these folk's life stories.
The work hangs on top of a mural of sorts, as has become customary for shows at the 400. It's also part of a national trend often employed by artists who...
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