Meet Renée Rey | Painting, Mixed-Media, Assemblage Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Renée Rey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Renée, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important factor behind my success is a strong brand identity and brand personality. As an artist, I have a vision for my work that is consistent with my personality and purpose. Even when my artwork style and use of media evolve over time, the concepts are complimentary, and the target market is consistent.

Since childhood, I have been on a mission to help make the world an inclusive and healthy place, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and artistically. This vision is deeply rooted in my paternal American/Jewish and maternal Armenian/Christian heritage, and birthplace in Japan. Growing up hearing multiple languages, my artistic vocabulary has always had the common thread of creativity.

As an artist, I speak through intimate and large scale paintings, mixed-media, assemblage art, and the written word. In ethereal, other-worldly ecospheres existing in flux above the earth, I explore transformation between a physical world that I confront daily versus a sublime world I want to experience. Time and movement-past, present, and future-are pivotal in my thinking.

I celebrate positive connections and similarities between diverse people and cultures all over the world and environmental responsibility between humankind and a sustainable global environment. This leads me to making symbolic associations between seemingly disparate ideas in science, religion, history, spirituality, nature, architecture, technology, and music.

In the process, I meld abstraction, realism, and surrealism. I experiment with transforming diverse natural and human-engineered materials into unpredictable interconnections including oil and acrylic paint, clay, pearls, tree branches, fibers, wire, sewing pins, corrugated cardboard, and ripped paper.

My intention is to create work that is inspiring, uplifting, and thought-provoking. Stimulating conversations have ensued. They touch on a myriad of topics and prove that the work resonates with audiences and collectors alike. The unforeseen connections that are made transcend the physical pieces of art!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
During Covid, I spent more time in raw nature. I had time and space to tap into my interior architectural design background and explore larger and more complex experiential works in the form of installation art.

I foraged for fallen tree branches, washed and bleached them, and attached them to and around my paintings. This led to experimenting with human-made objects like plastic containers and measuring tapes.

Recently, I was invited to exhibit my work in a solo show, “Beyond This Point,” at Tauni De Lesseps Gallery of Art, Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL. (See images) I had fun creating last minute site specific elements with canvas, string, and wood branches. A new dialog was created between the paintings and the added sculptural and layered solutions. This was a next step to achieving more complex visual experiences.

I would love to create larger installations in which the audience can walk through and viscerally experience worlds I create that unite people and ignite conversation about a healthy and sustainable future.

Continuing this journey presents logistical and financial challenges. Where do I create and store larger installations with only a small available space? Where do I find the funding and exhibition space to realize my vision?

How have I addressed the challenges so far? With brainstorming, planning, action, and faith in BADASS goals like building a better world through my art!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Pérez Art Museum, Miami NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale
Norton Museum Of Art, West Palm Beach
Pace Gallery, Palm Beach
Margulies Collection, Miami
de la Cruz Collection, Miami
Rubell Museum, Miami
Wynwood
South Beach
Palm Beach

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’ll start from the beginning!

My French born and raised mother, was a professional singer and fashion designer. She made all her and my clothes when I was young. I was surrounded by a kaleidoscope of patterns, textures, and colored fabrics and accessories and musical melodies in three languages. My dad, a Doctor of Optometry, and US naval officer, fired my interest in human anatomy, science, and seeing from different perspectives.

Both shared family and ancestral histories of joy, despair, and hope that taught me the meaning of compassion and pride in people and place.

Website: www.ReneeRey.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reneereyart/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ren%C3%A9e-rey-mba-b1330b9/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reneerey/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe4mC1XTr76Bdm8yEUHkhHg

Image Credits
Image 1 – Dennis Church, Photographer Eight other images – Renée Rey, Artist