Join us for an opening day reception with eastern NC artist Eric McRay as he displays artwork in the Mims Gallery. This event and art showing is FREE to the public.

Reception
February 12, 5-7pm
Mims Gallery @ The Dunn Center

“While outward beauty is often celebrated, it is the inter-beauty of the African diaspora that reveals its true power: the strength, faith, and wisdom that sustain communities across time.” 

About Eric McRay

Raleigh-based artist Eric McRay, born and raised in Washington, D.C., uses collage as a means of storytelling, transformation, and connection. His work explores the human figure as an entity of change within theatrical and narrative spaces, drawing inspiration from African-American culture, Biblical themes, art history, and pop culture. At the core, McRay’s art is rooted in personal and familial relationships, seeking to balance individual memory with universal experience.“Collage is inserting pieces of the real world into a constructed one,” McRay explains. In his practice, fragments of painted papers, earlier artworks, photographs, fabric, and found imagery are cut, torn, and reassembled into layered compositions on paper, board, or canvas. This process of spontaneous invention creates works that dissolve boundaries between art and life, high culture and everyday experience. McRay earned a BFA on scholarship from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has exhibited widely since 1987. A central figure in North Carolina’s art scene, he joined Artspace in 1998 and City Market Artist Collective in 2020. His work is held in major corporate, university, and private collections, and has been featured nationally and internationally through the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies Program.
Visit ericmcray.com and follow mcraystudios on Facebook and Instagram.

Join us for an opening day reception with eastern NC artist Eric McRay as he displays artwork in the Mims Gallery. This event and art showing is FREE to the public.

Reception
February 12, 5-7pm
Mims Gallery @ The Dunn Center

“While outward beauty is often celebrated, it is the inter-beauty of the African diaspora that reveals its true power: the strength, faith, and wisdom that sustain communities across time.” 

About Eric McRay

Raleigh-based artist Eric McRay, born and raised in Washington, D.C., uses collage as a means of storytelling, transformation, and connection. His work explores the human figure as an entity of change within theatrical and narrative spaces, drawing inspiration from African-American culture, Biblical themes, art history, and pop culture. At the core, McRay’s art is rooted in personal and familial relationships, seeking to balance individual memory with universal experience.“Collage is inserting pieces of the real world into a constructed one,” McRay explains. In his practice, fragments of painted papers, earlier artworks, photographs, fabric, and found imagery are cut, torn, and reassembled into layered compositions on paper, board, or canvas. This process of spontaneous invention creates works that dissolve boundaries between art and life, high culture and everyday experience. McRay earned a BFA on scholarship from the Maryland Institute College of Art and has exhibited widely since 1987. A central figure in North Carolina’s art scene, he joined Artspace in 1998 and City Market Artist Collective in 2020. His work is held in major corporate, university, and private collections, and has been featured nationally and internationally through the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies Program.
Visit ericmcray.com and follow mcraystudios on Facebook and Instagram.

Exact dates and details will be announced as soon as possible.

April-May 2026

Exact dates and details will be announced as soon as possible.

April-May 2026