Ray Monde lives and works in Braidwood, Australia. Paper has been his obsession since childhood when he plastered his bedroom wall with cutouts from glossy magazines on the family farm near Taree. 

After a successful career in advertising in Sydney, London and New York, Monde returned to his fascination with paper which shapes his practice today. He works across a variety of mediums including collage, drawing, painting and multimedia. 

 Monde’s primary technique involves hand-tearing and over-painting fragments of paper sourced from magazines. These elements are layered into detailed compositions that speak to the artist’s relationship with the physical and emotional landscapes that surround him.

Recent Selected Awards, Grants and Public Commissions

2024     Paddington Art Prize (Winner Anthea Polson Gallery Award & Rathenart Print Prize)

              ACT City Renewal Authority, Creative Hoarding Pilot Program

              Bundanon Artist-in-Residence

              Muswellbrook Art Prize (Finalist)

              Goulburn Art Award (Finalist)

              QPRC Art Award (Finalist)

2023     Still: National Still Life Award (Finalist)

              Naked & Nude Art Prize (Finalist)

              WAMA Art Prize (Finalist)

2022, 2020 the Blake Prize

2022, 2020 National Works on Paper Prize. 

2021 Paddington Art Prize,

2020 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize

MPRG National Works on Paper(Finalist)

         Veolia Mulwaree Creative Arts Scholarship

          Goulburn Art Award (Finalist)

Monde has exhibited widely and his works are held in collections in Australia and internationally.

“There are places we go that are our special places. When we’re in them, we are most ourselves. Our protective facade falls away and our vulnerabilities are exposed.”

“This series of works looks at those places and what it means to introduce someone else to that very personal space. The trepidation of sharing it, the intimacy of being there together and the unspoken bond that forms through a shared connection to place.”

Ray Monde, 2025

Three of the works in the show have been set aside for new collectors who couldn’t normally afford to buy original art. The works will be offered on a ‘pay what you can’ basis through the gallery.

Here’s how it works: there’s a low minimum price on the work and if a first time collector wants to acquire the piece, they just have to tell us why they like it, why it should go to them, and how much they want to pay.

These works are only available in the gallery, and collectors will need to fill out a form and hand it in to gallery staff.

The first 'pay what you can' winner will be chosen by Ray at the end of the opening weekend of the show. The other two works' winners will be selected by Ray at the end of the show.

“I’ve always wanted to make art as accessible to as many people as possible. Art is to be lived with, enjoyed. Without an audience art is dead,” Ray said.

“A lot of people have asked if they can buy prints of my work because they can’t necessarily afford an original piece, especially if they’re just starting their collecting journey. And I know from first-hand experience, that once you start collecting, you can’t stop.”

“So this is my way to help people acquire their first piece and experience what it’s like to live with art. Being surrounded by beautiful things brings long-term happiness rather than short-term pleasure, ” he added.