Ray DiCapua

Professor of Sculpture and Drawing

MFA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

A two-time McDowell Colony resident, Ray DiCapua’s work has been further supported by awards, grants, fellowships and visiting artist engagements. Presently his work is being exhibited at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. as part of the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Most recently, a one-person exhibition of selected drawings was installed at Kansas State University’s Chapman Gallery. Other recent exhibitions include the Richmond Center for the Visual Arts, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI., and at the University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA. Among the other venues that have exhibited his work are: The Sculpture Center; New York, NY; Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA; Spaces, Cleveland, OH; Mobious Gallery, Boston, MA; New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT; Boston University Art Gallery, Boston, MA; University of Massachusetts; College of Visual and Performing Arts, North Dartmouth, MA; Rhode Island College Art Center, N. Providence, RI.

During the fall of 2009/10 semesters, he implemented the first study abroad program for studio art students from the UConn Department of Art and Art History at the Institute at Palazzo Rucellai, Florence, Italy. The program continues to thrive.

On Making: In any moment of experience, there exists a profoundly complex weave of that which is personal (internal) and that which is structural (external).  As I make these drawings, I am aware that I play the role of interpreter.  The images I construct are reflections of the narratives, the lenses through which I look and in part, how I then construct meaning.  The degree to which I am aware of this process is an important component to how and what the drawings ultimately communicate.  The senses receive raw data.  I am curious about how that raw data gets connected in the ways that it does and how it then turns it into story, history, and belief patterns, the experience of self and other our lived and imagined realities.

Research/Practice Interests: Integral Theory and Consciousness, Human Development and Creativity