Ray Monde
Ray Monde lives and works in Braidwood, Australia. Paper has been his obsession since childhood when he plastered his bedroom wall with cutouts from glossy magazines on the family farm near Taree.
After a successful career in advertising in Sydney, London and New York, Monde returned to his fascination with paper which shapes his practice today. He works across a variety of mediums including collage, drawing, painting and multimedia.
Monde’s primary technique involves hand-tearing and over-painting fragments of paper sourced from magazines. These elements are layered into detailed compositions that speak to the artist’s relationship with the physical and emotional landscapes that surround him.
Monde has been a finalist in the Blake Prize (2022, 2020), Paddington Art Prize (2021), Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2020) and National Works on Paper Prize (2022, 2020). He was recently named a Bundanon Artist-in-Residence for 2024.
Monde has exhibited widely and his works are held in collections in Australia and internationally.
The Road to Wee Jasper by Ray Monde runs 2-18 February at Tyger Gallery.
Artist statement about The Road to Wee Jasper
The waters that curve around the flooded valleys of Lake Burrinjuck are a special, mysterious place.
Winding roads, hugging the precipitous hillsides are a gateway to a secret world.
My brother and his wife raised their four sons in a weatherboard cottage in Burrinjuck village. Visiting them felt like the world had gone quiet, creating moments to savour.
These works explore a timeless land where we can escape and reconnect. I like to call these works emotional landscapes as they reflect both what we see and how we feel, respond, reflect in those places.
The vibrant colours and limited palette seek to capture the heightened senses we have when we’re out in the bush, feeling a closeness with the landscape and the people with us.
Ray Monde, February 2024
