Ray Kass is an internationally recognized artist whose work is represented by ART ACCESS in NYC, the Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, and Steven Francis Fine Art in Lynchburg, VA. His paintings have been widely exhibited and have been represented in many solo exhibitions. He has received numerous grants and awards, including individual artists grants from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012 he had two extended residences at MQ in Vienna, Austria. His paintings reside in many public and private collections.

Ray Kass is Professor Emeritus of Art at Virginia Tech, and founder and director of The Mountain Lake Workshop; an ongoing series of collaborative and inter-related workshops centered in the environmental, cultural, and community resources of the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia. The workshops have resulted in many unique, collaborative works of art that have been widely exhibited.

His publications include numerous reviews, articles, and catalogues.

Ray Kass is the son of celebrated American Folk Artist Jacob Kass (1920-2000).

Artist Statement:

“I feel that my painting directly responds to the environments that I work in, however, I no longer paint the landscape with the objective of achieving representational or “realistic” images. My use of realism is not an afterthought - but information-gathering that refreshes and expands my sense of color and form. My particular development reverses the usual assumption that “abstraction” develops from the confirmed experience of the study of “realism.” Drawings provide source materials for my recent paintings; I develop them into fragmented patterns of cut-out shapes that I overlay in the process of applying layers of oil emulsion and dry pigment over similarly composite patterns of water media on paper.”