Ray Bernoff is an artist and maker working in multiple media, primarily drawing, sculpture, and the written word. He received his undergraduate degree in film and media studies and production from Tufts in 2018. His work focuses on identity, the body, and the abject. 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.
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.
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.
This sculpture appeared in ArtsWorcester’s Feast: Call and Response with the Fitchburg Art Museum.
It will appear at the Fitchburg Art Museum in summer 2024.
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.
Block prints (2020-ongoing)
Ink on paper
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
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
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!