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 based in Waimea, Hawaiʻi, whose practice encompasses printmaking, collage, and installation. Born on Oʻahu and raised on Hawaiʻi Island, her work is informed by the layered cultural and ecological landscapes of Hawaiʻi as well as her experiences living and traveling elsewhere. Ray holds an MFA from Concordia University in Montréal, Québec, and a BA in Studio Arts from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. She has participated in artist residencies at St. Michael’s Printshop in St. John’s, Newfoundland; Atelier de l’Île in Val-David, Québec; and Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California. Her work has been exhibited at the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum, Schaefer International Gallery at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Honolulu Museum of Art at First Hawaiian Center, MOAH: Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Parisian Laundry in Montréal. Most recently, Ray presented Between Horizons, a solo exhibition at Horikawa Shinbunka in Kyoto, Japan. In 2013, she was selected as the Honolulu Printmakers Gift Print Artist, and six of her works are held in the Art in Public Places Collection of the Hawaiʻi State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

Ray is co-owner of Island Eclectic, an art handling and design firm, and divides her time between Waimea and 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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