RAY KIIHNE 

Photos by Meg Kiihne

Ray Kiihne, is an abstract minimalist painter,  mixed media artist, and educator. Through his work he creates balance of color, contrast, light, shape in a search through expression to explain the imbalances of political, social, and cultural divides.  

Ray was born on a farm in Nebraska by first generation German and Danish farming immigrants.  After college, he left the farmland to drive west and "If I didn't find a job in California I had one waiting in Hawaii."   He meet Margaret Davies in the teacher's lounge at San Juan Capistrano, High School in September 1963..  They were married in April, 1964 and that summer embarked on a year traveling across Europe.  They spent the next 45 years teaching at Universities around the US and Brazil while raising their three children.  Ray and Margaret continued to travel across the US finding inspiration in contrasting landscape, history, and cultures. They split their time between Minnesota and New Mexico.

Ray, a true artist, with a legacy of work has shared his work at solo local shows, at Universities, and galleries in Taos, Albuquerque, and Rochester, MN.   

The past 20 years his work has been heavily influenced by the changing political and environmental landscape of the world.  Now, 80 years old, Ray is for the first time sharing his work with a larger awakening audience.