Malcolm Bray

Abstract painter Malcolm Bray was born in Hull, England and emigrated to the United States in May 1984. He presently resides in Delaware Township, NJ and was the former owner of Old English Pine (antique furniture imports) in Lambertville, New Jersey. In March of 2004, Bray gave up his import business of 19 years to concentrate full-time on his art career.

Bray has organized annual group art exhibitions since 1994, and the participating group is identified as New Eclectic. This group also displayed at MCS Gallery, Easton, Pennsylvania in 2003 and West Chester University, Pennsylvania in 2004. This particular exhibition included many artists from the local community and others from the region. Artists have included Rachel Bliss, Luis Bujalance, Jacques Fabert, Harry Georgeson, James Groody, Michael Hale, Diane Levell, Bonnie Maclean, Pat Martin, Barry Snyder and Mitchell Yarmark and Bray. Bray hoped the viewer would consider these exhibitions as "one unit" while at the same time acknowledging each artist's distinctive style.

During the summer of 2004, Bray attracted the attention of the Cheryl Hazan Gallery in New York. His present abstraction is spontaneous but structured in a way that elements within the composition evoke the dimensional aspects of volume and space. The large oil painting The Beach represents a significant step toward his new "open" style of painting.

Teachers and Influences
Bray is considered to be self-taught and has received no formal training in art. In his youth, Bray was influenced by Toulouse Lautrec, Vincent VanGogh and J.M.W. Turner. Between 1998 and 2000, he was influenced by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Bray is presently influenced by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock.

Connection to Bucks County
Malcolm Bray emigrated to New Hope from England in May 1984 and ran Old English Pine Antiques in Lambertville for 19 years.

Colleagues and Affiliations
His colleagues include the group "New Eclectic." Also, Cheryl Hazan and the artists at Bucks Gallery of Fine Art in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

Major Solo Exhibitions
Nora Lewis Gallery, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1985
Golden Door Gallery, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1986
Triumph Brewery, Princeton, New Jersey, 1998
MCS Gallery, Easton, Pennsylvania, 2002

Major Group Exhibitions
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1990
Annual Juried Show, Phillips' Mill, New Hope, Pennsylvania, 1992
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1993
Inside Out, Malcolm Bray Studio/Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1998
Six New Jersey Artists, DeLann Gallery, Plainsboro, New Jersey, 1998
Safety in Numbers, Malcolm Bray Studio/Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1999
Kentemperere 2000, Malcolm Bray Studio/Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 2000
Appropos, Malcolm Bray Studio/Gallery, Lambertville, New Jersey, 2001
2nd Annual Lehigh Valley Calendar Show, MCS Gallery, Easton, Pennsylvania, 2002
Up the River Now, The Gallery at Bristol Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey, 2002
Three-person Figurative, Rodger LaPelle Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2002
The New Eclectic, MCS Gallery, Easton, Pennsylvania, 2003
Artists of the River Towns, Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003
New Currents, Cheryl Hazan Gallery, New York, NY, 2005

Publications
featured in Doris Brandes' Artists of the River Towns, 2002