With this exhibition, Rae Mahaffey, addresses her concerns with how visual experiences effect us emotionally. Her work incorporates formal artistic issues while conceptually pushing boundaries. Color is her first vehicle of expression, intentionally using unusual combinations of color, abutting transparencies with opaque. These new paintings deal much more with the elusion of space, and are influenced by modernist abstraction, suggesting architectural cityscapes. The variation in surfaces and space allow the viewer to enter into a familiar but unique place. The work evokes feelings and associations that are ubiquitous to us all.
Rae Mahaffey studied at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and the University of Washington. She spent l4 years in the Seattle Art scene before moving to Los Angeles in l988, where she worked as a curator for Gemini G.E.L. and as a consultant for David Hockney's studio. With an extensive background in printmaking as well as being an accomplished painter, Rae is also a successful business woman; in l992 she moved to Portland to start Mahaffey Fine Art print studio with her husband Mark. Rae has exhibited her work widely and has been included in shows at the Portland Art Museum, Marylhurst Art Gym, Maryhill Museum and the Schomburg Gallery in Santa Monica.