Growing up on Hawaiʻi Island has shaped my work with a heightened awareness of both solitude and connection. I use imagery of rural infrastructure—water tanks, architectural remnants, bridges, and waterways—woven into layered landscapes that explore the interplay of natural, spiritual, and built environments. Drawing inspiration from both Hawaiʻi and Japan, I create surreal geographies that hold both decay and abundance, reflecting the fragile balance between belonging and displacement.

My iconography draws from these landscapes, filtered through my energetic and spiritual interpretations of place, attending to the traces left by plants, animals, and humans alike. These marks form an ongoing narrative that questions authenticity, vulnerability, and the complexities of living in relationship to land and spirit. Influenced by artists such as Frida Kahlo, William Kentridge, Takashi Murakami, and Barbara Kruger, I merge metaphysical symbolism with cultural critique, using the allegory of landscape to examine the entangled relationships between humans, land, animals, and unseen worlds across cultures and geographies.

Margo Ray is a visual artist who engages in printmaking, collage and installation. She holds an MFA from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec, a BA in Studio Arts from University of Hawai'i at Hilo, as well as a certificate from Peking University’s summer program in Beijing, China. She was born on O’ahu in 1976, raised on Hawai’i Island and has had the opportunity to travel throughout her life. She has been awarded artist residencies at St. Michael’s Printshop in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Atelier de I’île in Val David, Québec and Kala Art Institute in Oakland, California. In 2013 she was Honolulu Printmaker’s Gift Print Artist and the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts has purchased six of her works for their public collection. Margo’s works have been exhibited in venues such as Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville, VA), The Honolulu Museum of Art at First Hawaiian Center (Honolulu, HI), Parisian Laundry (Montréal, QC), the Hawai’i State Art Museum (Honolulu, HI), The Schaefer International Gallery (Kahului, HI) and most recently at The Lancaster Museum of Art and History (Lancaster, CA). Margo is co-owner of Island Eclectic, an art handling business, and lives in Waimea, Hawai’i and part time in Arashiyama, Kyoto, Japan.

Artwork that is available for purchase is listed on the ‘available’ page and kept as current as possible. Some peices are sold through galleries as listed and others through my studio. Please email me at margo@islandeclectichi.com if you are interesed in pruchasing a work or visiting my studio. I also gladly accept comissions if you have something specifc in mind.

CV

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