Charles Ray has worked with film, photography, sculpture and installations to explore the notion of representation and to conflate reality with the surreal. He grew up in Chicago, and from an early age had a practical aptitude and desire to make objects. As a student he became interested in the work of Anthony Caro, making abstract sculptures in steel. However, after leaving university his interests moved towards more performative ways of making art and his early practice can be viewed in context of the Body Art movement that emerged in the West Coast during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

ARTIST ROOMS includes a single work by Ray, an early work of 1973 in which the artist is depicted pinned to a wall in two different ways with a large plank of wood.

See art works in collection