Rachel M. Bray

Rachel M. Bray is a contemporary artist and writer.

She was born in Montréal, behind a police barricade. Though she has for many years exhibited her art from Los Angeles to Beijing, she rejects art conventions which enforce false hierarchies. She maintains no CV, rejects government arts funding and provides no glossy headshots because she is “an independent artist not a timeshare in the Poconos”.

As a NSCAD graduate (1993) she earned a BFA (Studio) Minor in Art History (honours) and ANSCAD Graphic Design. She was twice awarded the Joseph Beuys Memorial Scholarship. In the Anna Leonowens Gallery she presented NSCAD’s first solo digital art show. She completed her curatorial internship with Eye Level Gallery (Halifax) which supplemented her experience with La Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen (Moncton) and Galerie Sans Nom (Moncton).

Rachel began as a painter who became a documentary photographer by necessity. She later branched out into multimedia montages and video installation. Serendipity delivered to her an early expertise in digital photography and image manipulation. This evolved full-circle into digital painting. In 2010 she undertook a rediscovery of drawing and graphite work as prelude to her return to traditional painting. Illustrations from this period of study were featured in two issues of Tiny Pencil magazine. Adhering to a Yūgen aesthetic, her love of nature and the mystery of space today breathe life back into her love of traditional painting.

She has for decades written about the evolution of digital culture, technology and ethics in art. She is married to IBM software architect, author and cybersecurity expert Rory Bray. Together they make their home in Fredericton, New Brunswick where they enjoy a life of simple pleasures and professional dedication.