Jean Gray Mohs - Woven Strangers - Arts & Health Main Gallery

With a deep reverence for the processes and mechanisms of our inner landscape, North Carolina-based artist Jean Gray Mohs seamlessly merges the worlds of science and spirit in her abstract creations. Drawing on her lived experience with chronic illness and past disability, she uses a variety of media, with a current focus on painting and sculpture, to explore the emotional and physical spaces of vulnerability, fragility, and resiliency. Through her use of contrasting sturdy and fragile materials such as maple plywood and waxed thread, Jean’s art hints at the presence of two bodies born separately but now bound in a new, perfect balance - a reflection of her experience with a double lung transplant. Her work zooms in on the ideas of strength, fragility, and balance, evoking a world those with chronic illness know all too well.

Jean Gray was born in Greensboro, NC, and currently lives in Raleigh, NC with an open studio at Artspace downtown. She received her BFA and MAT from Georgia Southern University. Her work has been exhibited at the Contemporary Art Museum, Artspace, Peel Gallery, Artlink, Greenhill Gallery, the North Carolina Museum of Art, Duke University Hospital, Georgia Southern University, North Dakota State University, Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, Meredith College, Lamar Dodd School of Art in Italy, University of Georgia, and collaborated on a piece for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. As an artist in residence, she has had the privilege of spending time and creating art at Level Retreat, Teel Island, Summerfield Farm, and Thrive Together at Black Mountain, NC. Her artistic contributions have been a vital part of the Stillmoreroots group for 20 years, an artist group based out of Georgia that she helped found. Throughout her career, she has been the recipient of numerous grants, including ones from the United Arts Council, Wake County Schools, and Georgia Rural Economic Development Center. Her work has been featured in prominent publications like Walter, Southern Home, House & Garden, Traditional Home, and Southern Living, cementing her status as a respected artist.