About

The Deca-dance of Mr. Ray: A Decade of Artworks by Martin Rayment
16th September – 23rd September
Opening night- 15th September, 6-9pm

This September, Surface presents the first major UK exhibition of multidisciplinary artist Martin Rayment: The Deca-dance of Mr. Ray, featuring selected works from the first decade of the artist’s career.

The Deca-dance of Mr.Ray brings together the full-range of the artist’s distinctive multi-layered work. The pieces on display register years of personal history and present day realities on monumental canvases of resin, collage, and paint. Subtly and lavishly, Rayment uses the accoutrements of Hieronymus Bosch and the flavours of René Magritte to conjoin with the Golden Age of Hollywood. These cinematic pieces are teeming with curious tapestries of mysterious characters, presented in a swirling panorama of love and tragedy. They are composed of torn and distorted figures, lasers, saints and saviours, wrestlers and ballerinas, villains and movie stars. An artful composition invites viewers to trace skeletal, exploding thoughts by means of dark drama, cryptic triptychs and futuristic sci-fi scenes, where creation and demise finally collide.  

Known for his dreamlike resin collage and animated collage sculptures, Rayment depicts our universal human experience through the unique vision of his varied practice. Within his work, resides a penchant for playful seriousness, where beauty blooms across multiple lifetimes rendering the on-going process of self-formation, not as resolved matter, but an everlasting, decadent dance. I am delighted to showcase this latest decade of my artistic practice”, says Rayment. “In this time, it has evolved from 2D artworks in 2013 all the way into animatronic 3D sculptures in 2023. I am grateful to have met so many people along the way who have supported and inspired me. For the last few years I have been gradually building up a body of work in secret. Now it’s time to reveal it all and share it, in this latest exhibition: The Deca-dance of Mr. Ray”.

A new series of animatronic collage sculptures adorn this exhibition. With interactive artworks that are there to be explored, as as a screening on the opening night of a documentary-length film about Rayment’s practice, created over several years in collaboration with filmmaker, Tom Dennis of My Town Vision.

Closing Party
Saturday 23rd September, 7-10pm
To commemorate this landmark exhibition you are cordially invited to experience the closing celebration when Martin Rayment and a cohort of musicians, poets, dancers, and theatrical collaborators will capture the essence of The Dece-dance of Mr Ray with a live, atmospheric performance.

The Deca-dance of Mr.Ray opens in the Main Gallery in conjunction with Form: A Solo Exhibition by Andrew Spinks in the Project Space. As always, there will be a donations bar with ales from local brewery, Pheasantry.

Free Entry: Everyone Welcome

Opening Hours:
Tuesday to Friday: 12:00-17:00
Saturday: 11:00 -17:00

Where to Find Us:
16 Southwell Road
Nottingham
NG1 1DL

Email: info@surfacegallery.org
Website: www.surfacegallery.org

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