Figurative painter Harry Paul Ally gives form to mankind's innate and primal impulse to create, to record its existence, as part of the timeless search for meaning and identity: "Painting is the primal impulse to mark. It's a visual record of the mind, the body, and the human spirit. The works are an existential search for an abstract presence, an intuitive search into the unknown, a search for truth revealed through distortion and through exaggeration," Ally explains.
Harry Paul Ally utilizes a wide variety of materials - dry pigments, acrylics, tar, fabrics, oils, bonding agents, and different clays dug from the Georgia soil - "From these materials the figurative images are unearthed," Ally states. "There is a markedly primitive feel to Harry Paul Ally's work. Even with his raw figures, each canvas seems like a realistic moment in nature," comments Bill Lowe.
Harry Paul Ally is recognized as one of the South's finest painters. He has been a professor of drawing and painting at Valdosta State University in Georgia for more than 20 years. Harry Paul Ally has exhibited extensively in individual, group, and juried exhibitions since the 1970's and has won numerous awards for his paintings across the nation.
Harry Ally has a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Drawing and Painting from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from Texas Christian University.
He is currently represented by Stricoff Gallery in New York City, Craighead-Green Gallery in Dallas, Texas, Soren Christensen Gallery in New Orleans, & Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA. Ally is a professor of art in drawing and painting at Valdosta State University where he has taught since 1985. In addition to teaching at Valdosta State University, Professor Ally has been on the Art Faculty at MacMurray College, Texas Christian University, Edison State Community College, Tarrant County Junior College, the University of North Texas, and the Fort Worth Art Museum School. He lives, teaches, and paints in both Valdosta, Georgia and Troy, Ohio. Please see resume page for more detail.