New art featured this month at Grove Gallery Walk

The Coconut Grove Gallery Walk is Saturday, May 4, from 7 to 10 pm.

All the galleries around the Grove will be offering art along with refreshments. Make your way from one end to the other and stop and enjoy the Drum Circle at the corner of Commodore Plaza and Grand Avenue, along the way.

Artist Ray Lopez will have his art featured at a show called "Natura," at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival Gallery at the Mayfair Atrium. Above is a piece by Ray.

Ray's work combines the ideas of Purism, Realism, and Naturalism together on unconventionally sized canvases. Often finding himself attracted to desolate places, he always finds the composition he is looking for in the outdoors. The majority of the landscapes featured in Natura are painted on location and the beauty of these locations are shown through expressive strokes, washes, paint build up, accurate lighting techniques, weather conditions and time of day. Ray's art not only captures a place at a moment in time, but also shows a deep understanding of that place.

“I want to show my admiration for what is naturally beautiful, in its present state - marred by weather and time,” Ray said.  “I paint what I see in the hope of connecting with someone else’s fond memory of a place, a moment, a transformative experience.”

A Miami-native of Cuban descent, Ray found his love for the arts early on while attending New World School of the Arts, where he graduated with Honors and Distinction.  He received his BFA with Honors in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in 2008 and he currently shares his creativity and knowledge by teaching full-time at Doral Performing Arts & Entertainment Academy.

His solo exhibitions include “Personas” at the NWSA ArtSeen Gallery and “People, Places, + $20.00 Things” at the Flagler Arts Space, in which he is also a co-founder.  In addition, has also participated in several group exhibitions across the city.  He was featured at the NWSA Alumni Exhibition “Youngblood,” “Muralis” at the Flagler Arts Space, “Tres” at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival Gallery and “Natural Selection” during Art Basel week at the Hunter Gallery.