Rex, Ray - A small collection of mail art postcards including 2 collages, 1 cyanotype, 4 color photocopies, 5 black & white photocopies, 1 hand-drawn and rubber-stamped + 1 book and a handmade blueprint 1981 calendar (Signed) ( 1980-1982)

Rex Ray. A small collection of mail art postcards including 2 collages, 1 cyanotype, 4 color photocopies, 5 black & white photocopies, 1 hand-drawn and rubber-stamped + 1 book and a handmade blueprint 1981 calendar (15 items). Various: Rex Ray, 1980-1982. (15 items). 2 collages on foamcore sheet, 1 cyanotype print on foamcore sheet, 10 postcards of varying sizes, 1 staple-bound softcover, and 1 metal carabiner bound handmade blueprint (diazotype) 1981 calendar. Good. Items are largely in very good condition. A couple postcards have creasing, one has tears to edge as well. New address postcard has a vertical center fold. One collage and the cyanotype are encased in plastic shrink-wrap which has not shrunk, warped or degraded however the cyanotype's shrink-wrap has a small year front bottom right causing a bit of edgewear. The other collage, which is not in shrink-wrap, has minor edgewear. Two pieces with red price-tags with dates, but no price. Calendar has small closed tear top left near binding hole as well as light edge wear. Early mail-art by noted San Francisco artist and graphic designer Rex Ray (1956-2015) spanning the years 1980-1982. Beginning while Ray lived in Colorado, his move to San Francisco is documented in this collection as well as early experimentation with subject matter, artistic techniques, printing techniques, etc. A fascinating look at Rex Ray's early years, before he worked with The Residents, produced t-shirts and graphics for the earliest iteration of the San Francisco Act Up chapter, Club Uranus, City Lights Books, Bill Graham Presents, David Bowie, Apple or Gallery 16. A collection including collage, cyanotype, color and black & white photocopies, a photographic artists' book, and a numbered hand-made blueprint (diazotype) personalized 1981 calendar. These items were all mailed to Smegma magazine publisher Torrid Zone Igloo (a.k.a Alex Igloo a.k.a Alex Hirka). 9 with hand-written messages to verso, 1 rubber-stamped message, 1 rubber-stamped message with drawing, 1 new address notice (from when he moved to San Francisco), 1 staple-bound softcover, and 1 metal carabiner bound numbered hand-made blueprint (diazotype) personalized 1981 calendar. "Rex Ray was born in Landstuhl, Germany on September 11, 1956. His parents named him Michael Patterson. He was raised in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he was inspired by Andy Warhol to adopt the moniker Rex Ray. Moving to San Francisco in 1981, he became best known for his innovative pop aesthetic in fine and commercial art on canvases, wood panels, album covers, paper, book jackets, murals and posters. Throughout this lifetime, Ray was a major force in the Bay Area’s art, literary, LGBTQ and activist communities. Ray attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied with Sam Tchakalian, Kathy Acker and Angela Davis, receiving his BFA in 1989. He was one of the first artists to use Mac-based technologies in the creative process to generate graphics and fine art. To achieve his signature style, Ray combined digital graphics with Xerography, handmade woodblock prints, newsprint and magazine images into works that reference decorative arts and midcentury modernism as well as the dada, Fluxus and pop art movements of the 20th century. Ray’s early designs include the first graphics for the San Francisco chapter of the AIDS activist group ACT UP; flyers and posters for queer nightclubs; and a hundred book covers for City Lights Books, High Risk/Serpent’s Tail and other imprints. His impressive client roster in the music, fashion, entertainment and design industries includes David Bowie, The Residents, Bill Graham Presents, DreamWorks, Levis, Neiman Marcus, Sony Music, Warner Brothers and Apple. The artist’s exhibition history includes the Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio; the Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, Calif; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; The Kirkland Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, Calif.; and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. Rey Ray died in San Francisco on February 9, 2015. He was 58 years old." - https://www.glbthistory.org/rex-ray