Ray Bernoff is an artist and maker working in multiple media, primarily multimedia assemblage, painting, and the written word. He received his undergraduate degree in film and media studies and production from Tufts in 2018. His work focuses on waste, the body, and other abject subjects. He draws inspiration from his experiences of chronic illness, disability, and transsexuality, though at times he just wants to make something bright, glittery, or slimy-looking.

A 13x17" mixed media wall panel with a purple face having an allergic reaction painted in the center. The face is surrounded by a red background made of trash.

Swollen with K.C. MacPhail (2024)

Acrylic, mixed media art waste (including watercolor, spray paint, paper, resin, and lightbulbs) on canvas

“Swollen” expresses our experience with pain caused by chronic inflammation, marrying Ray’s waste-based art practice with K.C.’s portraiture to create something swollen and suffocating. The subject is exhausted, resigned to their pain, letting the bits and pieces of agitation close over them.

This piece appeared in ArtsWorcester’s Fusion. See more of this piece.

Daily Essentials, a blue jewelry box filled with jewelry made out of medical waste like pills and pill bottles

Daily Essentials with Ben Cline (2024)

Poplar wood, acrylic, jewelry findings, non-biological medical waste

Some people won’t go out without their jewelry. Others can’t leave the house without their medication.

Chronic illness is not known for its aesthetic appeal, but with this piece, we ask “What if all our daily essentials were beautiful?” By juxtaposing Ben’s fine woodworking and Ray’s waste-based assemblage practice, we’ve synthesized the mundanity of the daily pill case and the glamour of the jewelry box into an art object with a touch of both.

This piece appeared in ArtsWorcester’s Fusion. See more of this piece.

Trash Painting #3 (Green) on the right in a gallery among other art
Trash Painting #3 (Green) (right) at the show Future Craft at Gallery 263 in Cambridge, MA (Photo courtesy Doug Breault)

Community Trash (2024-ongoing)

Mixed media art waste from friends and community members (including acrylic, watercolor, fabric paint, spray paint, PVA glue, paper, resin, and wood) on previously used canvas

The ‘Community Trash’ series is an extension of my series ‘Trash Paintings’. For Community Trash, I collect discarded or unwanted materials from friends, family, and community members: too-small offcuts and scraps, dried-out or contaminated paint, canvases lumpy with failed attempts, boxes laden with the dust and guilt of abandoned hobbies. Repurposing this creative trash reduces both my effect on the climate and the clutter in my friends’ homes. Everybody wins!

This series received coverage from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Pieces have appeared in the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery‘s “Fire and Water” and Gallery 263’s “Future Craft”.

See more Community Trash paintings.

A 12 by 16" abstract painting. Black and blue paint studded with failed dice castings drips down from the left of the canvas. The bottom and right side of the painting fade from bright yellow-orange to red, with swoops of color and random objects dotted throughout.
Community Trash #1
A wooden tray abstractly painted with thick layers of black, orange, green, blue, and yellow paint. Objects are embedded under the paint: dice with visible flaws, wooden rings, resin scraps. Gold glitter accents some of the surface.
Trash Painting #2
A 12" square painting with many small items glued to it mosaic-style. A strip at the top of the painting is white, with all white and transparent items; the rest is blue, with areas that have a green background and show the original color of the items. The painting includes pens and pencils, resin scraps with a hexagonal tiled pattern, and a candy wrapper chain,
Community Trash #5
A 20 x 24" mixed media abstract painting. It has a central mound of arts and crafts trash in the center, bursting outward to the edges. The entire surface is painted in shades of green.
Trash Painting #3 (Green)
A 20 x 26" mixed media painting, all painted bright red with subtle tonal variations. Art scraps, primarily wood, fill the canvas. The laser cut word 'FUCK' appears many times. A wooden star, partially contoured and partly flat, stands out in the top right. The edges of the painting are matte and the center is glossy.
Trash Painting #4 (Red)
A bright orange plate of bright orange food. Next to it, a yellow hard hat shines a head lamp onto the food.

Safe Foods (2024)

Aluminum foil, stone clay, Hershey’s kisses wrappers and plumes, found objects, cardstock, spray paint, acrylic paint, glass microbead paint

inspired by David Seltzer, Sea Salt/Lemon Sage

With celiac disease, every meal is a risk. Gluten hides everywhere, from restaurant griddles to soy sauce and licorice. Since my diagnosis, I’ve identified “safe foods” I can always trust not to set off an intestine-destroying immune response: whole fruit, plain potato chips, most hot dogs, Hershey’s chocolate. When I’m stranded and hungry, I look for them. Drawing on the bright colors and abstract inedibility of David Seltzer’s Sea Salt/Lemon Sage, I made my safe foods easier to find by rendering them in an ANSI-inspired worksite safety palette. Use the headlamp for the full high-visibility experience.

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This sculpture appeared in ArtsWorcester’s Feast: Call and Response with the Fitchburg Art Museum and in the Fitchburg Art Museum’s Community Gallery.

A 24" by 36" multimedia painting. The background is green with red and blue spilled over it. The bottom half is full of paint-splotched art trash -- empty paint tubes, paper towels, gloves, bits of foam, and so forth, which spill upwards through the composition.

Trash Paintings (2020-ongoing)

Mixed media art waste (often including acrylic, PVA glue, paper, cardboard, and Sculptamold) on canvas board

In my series ‘Trash Paintings’, I only use materials left over from other art projects—unused acrylic paint lingering on the palette, sheets of half-dried glue from the morning after a papier-mache session, snippets of cardboard picked off the floor. Creating with waste emboldens me to explore textures and compositions I’m scared will be ugly. What’s the worst that could happen? It’s already trash.

Paintings from this series appeared in the ArtsWorcester Eleventh Annual One, Scaled Down, and Twelfth Annual One.

See all trash paintings.

A 4" square abstract painting. Deep purplish red surrounds the outside like a vignette, fading to bright red and then muddy yellow and green in the center. Emerging from the paint is whitish, pearly paper and a scrap of maroon embroidery floss.
A 4" square abstract painting. The background is goldtone metal leaf. Pink, white, and blue paint smear the foreground. Plastic and Styrofoam scraps are barely visible in the mess.
A 4" square abstract painting. It is mostly sky blue. A brown tree-trunk-like line divides the painting. Scraps of red plastic tape and chunks of white and orange dried paint are scattered over the surface.
A 5" square abstract painting. The background is black. Streaks of goldtone metal leaf burst out from a red spot in the top right corner.
A lino print in black ink of two garlic cloves

Block prints (2020-ongoing)

Ink on paper

See all block prints.

A block print in pink ink of a woman with an undercut and a snake forearm tattoo, sitting in front of a bookshelf and writing
The Poet, block print, Aug 2023
A block print of celery and carrots. The celery is green and the carrots are orange
Celery and carrots, block print, Aug 2023
A black ink block print of two strawberries with some strawberry leaves and flowers
Strawberry, block print, May 2023
A pink ink block print of a fat, naked trans man with long flowing hair. He is holding a hammer
Hammer, block print, Aug 2023
A relief painting of torn intestines spilling small plastic bread

Evacuation (January 2023)

Paper clay, air dry clay, acrylic paint, varnish, PVA glue, and plastic charms on canvas

I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease after 18 years of worsening chronic diarrhea. People with celiac have an autoimmune reaction to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. I had to keep eating gluten while I waited months for a biopsy to confirm my illness, despite knowing that it was making my intestines attack themselves. This relief sculpture is about feeling betrayed by foods I trusted to be safe and by my own body, and about the grief of giving up the breads and pastries tied to so many happy memories and family traditions.

Appeared in Off The Beaten Path: A Counter Culture Art Exhibition

A relief painting of a gory wound full of pills and glitter

The Wound Will Not Heal (November 2022)

Paper clay, spackle, acrylic paint, PVA glue, varnish, expired medication, and Unicorn Milk pearlescent topcoat on canvas

I’m sick and disabled. Every day I take pills. At my worst I was throwing back fifteen a day. I get so fed up I could scream. I am filled to bursting with anti-inflammatories and beta blockers and pain meds and antidepressants and vitamins, filled until I could tear open. This relief sculpture did not bring me ease, but did let me reveal for a moment what I normally hold back.

Appeared in The Twentieth ArtsWorcester Biennial where it won the Youth Committee Honorable Mention

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A bead curtain made from sliced up prescription bottles is hanging in a window. Strings of orange beads and plastic rings (the slices) hang in an arched shape. The top of the curtain is a small piece of wood with a white scalloped border made from halved prescription bottle lids. The sun is shining through the window. An intact prescription bottle sits on the window sash.

Prescription Portière (September 2022)

Prescription bottles, plastic beads, wood, fishing line

I saved several years’ worth of prescription bottles to make this retro bead curtain. I knew that orange had decorative potential!

I had to learn some new skills to make this. I have to say I’m happy with the result.

Thanks to Technocopia — couldn’t have made this without your table saw and community!

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