Charles Ray Opens Dual Exhibitions at Matthew Marks and Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles

Charles Ray (born Chicago, 1953) opened two concurrent solo exhibitions on April 18 in Los Angeles, at Matthew Marks Gallery (1062 N. Orange Grove) and Jeffrey Deitch Gallery (925 N. Orange Drive), just over a kilometer apart. At Matthew Marks, three new works are on view: 'Fallen Horse' (2025), a life-size granite horse carved from a single 12-ton block on which Ray worked for nearly 15 years; 'Junk 2' (2026), stacked painted engine parts; and 'The Animation of Pandora' (2026), a painted bronze group depicting Pandora flanked by Hephaestus and Athena. At Jeffrey Deitch, three older works are shown: 'Firetruck' (1993), a 14-meter-long enlarged toy fire truck; 'Pepto-Bismol in a Marble Box' (1988), a white marble box filled with pink antacid; and 'Table' (1990). Ray has lived in Los Angeles for four decades. In 2022, he had simultaneous exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Centre Pompidou, and Bourse de Commerce. In an interview, Ray discussed 'The Animation of Pandora,' noting its classical references and its surface of painted bronze that evokes white marble, leaving space for imagination. He compared Pandora to contemporary social media and AI, and Hephaestus to Mark Zuckerberg. Regarding 'Fallen Horse,' Ray described it as a monument to the horse, recalling that horses were ubiquitous in his Chicago childhood and often left to rot on battlefields. The exhibitions run until June 6 (Jeffrey Deitch) and June 13 (Matthew Marks), 2026.