ART : VENTURA COUNTY WEEKEND : Images Celebrate the Nobility of Farm Laborers

Roxie Ray keeps her eye to the ground, and in so doing offers a rare glimpse of the humanity in our midst. Ray’s paintings, which have popped up in group shows around the county in recent years, are distinctive for their close-up, sympathetic vision of local farm workers, a significant yet often ignored demographic in this agriculturally rich region.

Seeing these images piecemeal in group shows, as isolated social realist scenes, is one thing. In a solo exhibition at the Buenaventura Gallery, Ray’s message rings out more clearly. With a rough yet effective style, Ray creates big, bold images celebrating the workers’ quiet nobility. She also addresses the facelessness of the work, as in “Red Handkerchief,” where the subject is as much the handkerchief as the face it covers.

There are ironies that allude to the marginalization of farm workers, who cover their heads with Nike hats while inhabiting the bottom of the socioeconomic curve. In “Backbone,” the title tells all: a portrait of toil. Ray ventures into landscape painting, too--”Central Offramp” has a bracing clarity and a photographer’s sense of composition.

But it is in the fields--freeway close, yet a world away for many--that Ray’s signature work is done.

Paintings by Roxie Ray, through Saturday at the Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St. in Ventura; 658-1235.