Emily Ray

The MAG Community Art Center is pleased to present Nature of Existing, an exhibition of new work by Murray State University art student Emily Ray. The show remains on exhibit in MAG’s Doran gallery through September 26th.

Ray is a senior in Murray State University’s Department of Art and Design BFA program and the 2026 recipient of the MAGpie Award. Sponsored by the MAG Community Art Center, the MAGpie Award is presented during the Organization of Murray Art Students’ annual juried exhibition and recognizes outstanding student achievement in the visual arts.

Ray’s work demonstrates a high level of technical skill across a range of media, including painting, printmaking, ceramics and wood sculpture. Throughout these varied disciplines, her work maintains a consistent conceptual framework rooted in a strong sense of place.

Nature of Existing is a mixed-media collection of artwork that explores the experience and meaning of existence through representations of Midwestern fauna. In her artist statement, Ray describes the works as capturing “a moment in pause between a transition in action and fluid, vivid motion.” The animals are portrayed in raw and vulnerable states, looking outward toward the viewer and inviting personal reflection.

“Taking familiar fauna from the community, these subjects intend to connect more closely with the audience as though they are related,” Ray writes. “With existence comes complicated and deeply personal experiences, and my work showcases the rawness of living, of turmoil or blissfulness.”

Ray’s work explores vulnerability, transition and the universal experiences of change. Through images of familiar animals, she encourages viewers to consider their own experiences of growth, loss, transformation and the uncertain moments between one stage of life and the next. “Despite exposure, there is beauty in the nature of feeling real,” Ray writes.

The MAG Community Art Center is grateful to Ray for sharing her creative work with the community and congratulates her on receiving the 2026 MAGpie Award. The community is invited to a closing reception on Thursday September 24th, 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm. The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, provides operating support to MAG Community Art Center with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.