ray-mel cornelius : changes
September 6, 2025 - October 11, 2025
Press Release
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(Dallas) Ro2 Art is proud to present Changes, a solo exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Ray-Mel Cornelius. In this luminous new body of work, Cornelius turns his painter’s eye to the subtle but profound contrasts between his lifelong home in Texas and his adopted landscape of northern New Mexico. Changes becomes a meditation on place, bridging two geographies that, while divided by an arbitrary line, are united by light, memory, and the mythic sweep of the American landscape.
Drawing from decades spent in North Texas, and more recent years in Taos, Cornelius creates scenes where prairie and mountain, dusk and daylight, animal and icon intermingle. Dual-panel paintings and companion pieces serve as visual dialogues, each side a poetic response to the other. Jackrabbits race through crimson grass beneath boundless Texas skies; aspens stand luminous against New Mexico’s gathering twilight. Through bold color, cinematic clarity, and a folkloric sense of wonder, Cornelius renders the familiar uncanny and the ordinary extraordinary. Rooted in Americana but reaching toward something timeless, Cornelius’s art invites viewers to cross borders — between states, between memories, and between the worlds of waking and dream. |
About the Artist
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Ray-Mel Cornelius grew up in a small town in northeast Texas, and after decades in Dallas and North Texas, now lives and works in Taos, New Mexico. He is best known for his luminous paintings and drawings that explore the intersection of memory, imagination, and place. In each work, Cornelius begins with a dark underpainting, building form and atmosphere through gradual, layered tones, a process that allows both representational and abstract elements to emerge in tandem.
His imagery is rooted in the ordinary — jackrabbits, wildflowers, empty roads, and borderland skies, yet charged with a dreamlike clarity. Through his signature blend of Americana symbolism and folkloric sensibility, Cornelius conjures scenes that feel timeless, cinematic, and slightly surreal. Whether painting the crimson fields of Texas or the high desert light of New Mexico, he captures the spirit of each landscape with bold color and poetic restraint. A professional artist since 1977, Cornelius’s work has appeared in AcrylicWorks: The Best in Acrylic Painting, The Artist’s Magazine, Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists at Work, Southwest Art, and Spectrum: The Best in Fantastic Art, among other publications. He has exhibited in galleries and museums across Texas, Colorado, Ohio, New York, and beyond. |
exhibition statement
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“This body of work continues my exploration of the environment and its inhabitants. These paintings and drawings synthesize the experiences of two places that are different but have similarities that an arbitrary line can’t deny. I use iconic imagery representing and symbolizing both the similitude and the striking differences. Having spent most of my life in Texas cities, and a childhood in the rural northeastern part of the state, my familiarity with that area provides an easy contrast with my new and continued opportunity to examine this life in New Mexico through art making.”
— Ray-Mel Cornelius |
