Ralph Pugay:
The Longest Journey
December 2, 2023-January 6, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 2 from 1-4pm

Oregon Arts Watch
Empathy and Eros: Ralph Pugay’s ‘The Longest Journey’
Lucy Cotter
December 11, 2023

Oregon Arts Watch
VizArts Monthly: Farewell 2023
Jason N. Le
December 4, 2023

Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce The Longest Journey, a solo exhibition by Ralph Pugay (b. 1983 in Cavite, Philippines; lives and works in Portland, OR), featuring new paintings and works on paper, as well as a site-specific drawing. Drawing inspiration from historical events, popular culture, and observations of everyday life, Pugay creates raucous and irreverent paintings and drawings that ask the viewer to imagine a variety of pictorial “what-ifs.” The exhibition opens at the gallery on Saturday, December 2 with a reception with the artist from 1–4pm and is on view through January 6, 2024.

From vampires pumping iron to ravers being airlifted to safety by helicopters, to a group of meditators battling each other at a meditation competition, Pugay paints his errant thoughts and draws his non-linear narratives to extreme ends. The title of the exhibition, The Longest Journey, is a metaphor for self-discovery and has been referenced in literature and in movies, as well as in a video game from the late 1990s where the protagonist maneuvers between realities. In this exhibition, Pugay considers the tropic quality of the phrase with its range of meaning and use—something that, for Pugay, is critical to understanding the interplay between the flow of information and human perception as he considers the effects of the external world and its technologies on our internal world, our daydreams, and our relationships.

Pugay’s painted propositions are the result of the artist’s careful study of the human condition—particularly religion, specifically Catholicism, and history; his curiosity with contemporary culture as filtered through TikTok and other social media; and his critical engagement with ideas of class, race, gender and queer culture. The resulting works are characterized by bright colors, playful compositions, and patterning. Our popular trends, viral news stories, consumer fads, and all other manner of social phenomena are poignantly examined with great clarity and humor, locating the moments of tension in the collective unconscious.

Acupuncture School, 2023 takes on wellness and education trends as a cohort of aspiring acupuncturists engages in self-directed learning dubiously inserting needles into human test subjects. In The Pilgrim Underground, 2023, we find European colonizers in a subterranean cavern which begs a most basic question—How did they get here?—while calling to mind claims of land ownership and the ways that identity might be shaped by cultural and spiritual insularity. In the exuberant A Tornado of Dancers, 2023, Pugay references the celestial gravitas of Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment. Here, the artist substitutes the judgment of all humanity with a modern dance performance replete with a cadre of spandex clad dancers who are somersaulting and contorting in the eye of the storm.

Accompanying the paintings is a collection of drawings that also mine popular culture, myth, and motifs. Composed of ink, watercolor, wax pastels, and graphite, these quick and confident drawings isolate characters, objects, and moments to create chimerical vignettes that are both strange and familiar, resulting in a rich display of world-building that forefronts experimentation, curiosity, and empathy. A large-scale, site specific drawing will extend the works onto the gallery walls and further activate the space.

Ralph Pugay (b. 1983 in Cavite, Philippines; lives and works in Portland, OR) holds a BA and MFA in Contemporary Art Practice from Portland State University, Portland, OR. Pugay has been in residence at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME; the Rauschenberg Foundation, Captiva Island, FL; the Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA; Crow's Shadow Golden Spot Residency Program, Pendleton, OR, and Creative Exchange Lab, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR. Awards include a Ford Family Foundation Rauschenberg Fellowship, the 2015 Betty Bowen Award from the Seattle Art Museum, an Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship, and a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award.

Select Works

Ralph Pugay
Butterfly Village, 2023
acrylic on canvas
30h x 48w in
76.20h x 121.92w cm
RP2023004


Ralph Pugay
Raver Rescue Mission, 2023
acrylic and flashe on canvas
30h x 48w in
76.20h x 121.92w cm
RP2023005


Ralph Pugay
Spaghetti Scrimmage, 2023
acrylic, wax pastels, and flashe on panel
12h x 9w in
30.48h x 22.86w cm
RP2023011


Ralph Pugay
A Tornado of Dancers, 2023
acrylic and flashe on canvas
24h x 30w in
60.96h x 76.20w cm
RP2023009


Ralph Pugay
Gym of the Night, 2023
acrylic and flashe on canvas
24h x 30w in
60.96h x 76.20w cm
RP2023003


Ralph Pugay
Sewer Sonata, 2023
acrylic on canvas
24h x 30w in
60.96h x 76.20w cm
RP2023001


Ralph Pugay
Dog Spirits on the 4th of July, 2023
acrylic, wax pastels, and flashe on canvas
24h x 30w in
60.96h x 76.20w cm
RP2023007


Ralph Pugay
Acupuncture School, 2023
acrylic on canvas
16h x 20w in
40.64h x 50.80w cm
RP2023010


Ralph Pugay
Sarcophagus Workshop, 2023
acrylic and flashe on panel
16h x 20w in
40.64h x 50.80w cm
RP2023008


Ralph Pugay
Meditation Contest, 2023
acrylic and flashe on canvas
24h x 30w in
60.96h x 76.20w cm
RP2023002


Ralph Pugay
The Pilgrim Underground, 2023
acrylic and flashe on canvas
30h x 24w in
76.20h x 60.96w cm
RP2023012


Ralph Pugay
Factory Moon, 2023
ink and wax pastel on paper
18h x 24w in
45.72h x 60.96w cm
RP_2023_DR_003


Ralph Pugay
Bathing, 2023
watercolor on paper
24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm
RP_2023_DR_011


Ralph Pugay
Meth Cavern, 2023
watercolor and wax pastel on paper
18h x 24w in
45.72h x 60.96w cm
RP_2023_DR_017


Ralph Pugay
Furry Convention, 2023
ink on paper
9h x 12w in
22.86h x 30.48w cm
RP_2023_DR_020


Ralph Pugay
Man at the Freeway, 2023
ink on paper
18h x 24w in
45.72h x 60.96w cm
RP_2023_DR_035