Rae Mahaffey

Rae Mahaffey uses color, pattern and complexity to examine the interaction between visual experience and a more allegorical consideration of the structure of human life. She is less concerned with expressing a specific interpretation than with investigating the layered possibilities of color, pattern and repetition—what Mahaffey calls the “semantics and syntax of visual art.” The artist exhibits works that speak to the intricacies of the world around us. This show will include paintings that are oil on wood panel, as well as watercolor studies on paper. This work continues her exploration of the visual experience through formal artistic means. Mahaffey’s fresh, direct approach is provoking, visceral and contemporary.

Rae Mahaffey studied at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark and the University of Washington. She moved from Seattle 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. She moved to Portland in 1992 to start Mahaffey Fine Art print studio with her husband Mark. Mahaffey’s exhibitions include shows at the Portland Art Museum, OR, Marylhurst Art Gym, OR, Maryhill Museum, WA, and the Schomburg Gallery in Santa Monica. Completed commissions include Washington State Arts Commission for Gray Middle School in Tacoma, a project for the Pacific First Center, Harsch Investment Properties in Portland, and most recently, a major installation for the El Paso Airport in Texas.

New Paintings and Works on Paper

March 1 – 31, 2012

Press Release