A brief note 

IVAN BRAY was born in North Wales on the 14th October,1967 and came to Perth with his parents in 1982. He seems to have eschewed normal schooling, enrolling, instead, at the Claremont School of Art, wining a number of painting and drawing prizes there, before graduating with a Diploma of Fine Art in 1985, aged only eighteen.

Ivan had his first show with us in 1987 and became a regular exhibitor over the next decade or so. Also, in 1987 he was awarded a Creative Development Grant by the WA Department for the Arts. In 1989 he was received the Mandorla Prize for Religious Art, under the auspices of the Benedictine Community at New Norcia.

Ivan was singularly committed to being a poet, as well as a painter, and this commitment is reflected in the intensity of his imagery. By nature, retiring, he, nevertheless, was a leader of a group of other young artists who found a need to explore, and express in their works, the classical and mythological strands of art history. This was strongly noticeable in a group show – which they named Theoria - and exhibited with us in July 1990.

Ivan has since returned to England where he now works and exhibits.