Exhibition Review: Fred Cray: Singular
Unitled, 2021
Musical notes; fingerprints
37 ¾ x 45 ½” archival pigment print; ink
Written by Emily Capone
Edited by Jana Massoud
Fred Cray has made somewhat of a name for himself in the artistic community, but not in the way one would expect. Cray not only puts his mark on the world through his art, but he leaves small traces of himself for the world to find in the form of physical photographs with only a stamp and his signature on the back of each print. Some of these photos are found taped to a subway station wall, stuffed in between a library book, or perhaps placed in the stony hands of a statue in a busy city square, and some are still waiting for a place to call home. In this way, he allows the rest of the world to share in these small traces.
Unitled, 2021 [bird; fingerprints] 22x17” archival pigment print; ink
Unitled, 2021 [Grandfather clock; fingerprints] 22x17” archival pigment print; ink
As our communities grow closer due to virtual connection, this once unknown trend is becoming more familiar, and I think it’s just the kind of positive impact we need today. Cray’s newest exhibition on display at Janet Borden, Inc., Singular, is a breath of fresh air amidst the negativity being shared around the world. In an interview with Brooklyn, Cray spoke of this lack of positivity in NYC due to the pandemic, saying, “…I just have a barometer of the city and its energy is based on the presence of people, and I feed off that.”
Unitled, 2021
Rome Wall; fragment
37 3⁄4 x 45 1⁄2” archival pigment print; ink
While this lack of “energy” is still an issue throughout the world today, Cray’s ability to counteract it is seen in his photographic collection, Singular. In a fit of whimsy, Cray presses his fingers onto the glossy film of each print, leaving a new mark on the world around him. An example is in Untitled, 2021 (Basketball hoop; fingerprints), where the absence of “energy” (a.k.a. people) plays a small part in comparison to the colorfully painted fingerprints which are haphazardly placed atop the image of a broken basketball-hoop backboard. While it appears as an amalgamation of the emptiness of the court and the damaged basketball hoop, there is a playful side to the position of the prints, as if a stranger unintentionally touched the image with paint-stained fingers while in a hurried conversation with a friend.
This haphazard fingerprinting mechanism is much more than a playfully artistic accident. Some images have a pattern, as in Untitled, 2021 (Central park; fingerprints), in which Cray’s fingerprints appear as a literal affixation of water droplets caught on the camera lens or splattered onto the print. This identification seems warranted, not accidental, much like the abruptness of bright yellow fingerprints atop the image of a headless woman in Untitled, 2021 (camera/model; fingerprints) or the circumferential distance around a blurry image of two people on a carnival ride in Untitled, 2021 (swings; fingerprints).
Unitled, 2021
Venice; fragment
37 ¾ x 45 ½” archival pigment print; ink
Cray doesn’t just snap a photo and call it a day. As with his previous collections, Cray incorporates his background in painting to create what some may call a hybrid form of photography, which is neither photo nor painting. It’s just art. This is seen in images such as Untitled, 2021 (Rome Art), in which Cray morphs the original into a psychedelic expression of color, creating a new transition from an ancient and somewhat fragile structure that needs to be protected into a bizarre, contorted image transported out of a fever dream. In turn, I found myself vicariously touching my own fingerprints to these images, transcending time and physicality.
Fred Cray is a Brooklyn-based artist and he studied at the Yale Graduate School of Painting. His works have been featured in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Museum of the City of New York and California Museum of Photography. His newest exhibition, Singular, will be open to the public at Janet Borden, Inc. until December 22nd, 2021.
