Charles Ray

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Firetruck, 1993, painted aluminum, fiberglass, and plexiglass, 12 x 8 x 46 1/2 feet, Photo by Ari Mintz, image courtesy of the artist and Matthews Marks Gallery, New York Untitled, 2003 ink on paper, 26 x 40 inches, photography courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago, image courtesy of the artist and Matthews Marks Gallery, New York

interview and portrait by ALEX ISRAEL

 

For three decades now Charles Ray has been considered one of the foremost American sculptors. His works question empirical truths, while occupying physical and conceptual space. 7 1/2 Ton Cube, a 91-centimeter white cube of solid steel, looks easily portable but it actually measures the weight of gravity; Firetruck, a toy truck the size of a real one, posits a child’s memory against reality; Unpainted Sculpture, a fiberglass copy of a wrecked car in which a person died is…