Shray

About Shray

(May 24, 2018) Contemporary American bronze sculptor, Shray, has won the 2018 Allied Artists of America Associates Competition in sculpture. Her abstract work, "Balance Struck II," took top honors at the revered 104-year old organization, the Allied Artists of America. Shray is one of the few working artists today who employs the subtractionist technique, in which the artist finds the form in the clay as opposed to adding clay to an armature. Much like the technique of carving, Shray works with lines and shadows of the block, thoughtfully eliminating material from the block as she sculpts. Her simplicity of form has been compared to that of Henry Moore, Rodin and Brancusi.

“I see the emotion in the form, the hard lines, the curves, and allow them to carry the human condition through and around the negative and positive spaces. I am concerned with the fine line between the individual and humanity and how to achieve this without succumbing to sentimentality. This is one of the great puzzles figurative sculptors face. My approach is to let the form carry the emotion,” stated the artist.

An intuitive artist, Shray's sculptures never appear labored or forced. She balances the figurative and the abstract without losing human emotion. “While I work, I am able to see geometrically while recognizing a sense of humanity while pushing towards abstraction.”