Trailblazer: Skier-artist Cody Wilder Ray swaps podiums for paint, stirs up Main Street’s gallery scene

Cody Wilder Ray, 28, blends his pro-ski roots with street-art flair in Park City’s Main Street Gallery, where his resin-sealed collages of retired skis honor local legends and invite a new generation to create. Photo: Cody Wilder Ray

PARK CITY, Utah — For most of his 28 years, Cody Wilder Ray kept his creative life strapped to a pair of skis. Growing up in Winter Park, Colorado, the halfpipe specialist used gear as a canvas long before he hung paintings on a wall. “I started painting my helmet just to stand out, to bring high fashion into skiing,” he said. “Being so out there—a breath of fresh air—has always been my thing.”

A decade ago, Ray moved to Park City to chase competitive podiums. These days, his biggest jumps happen indoors, where spray paint, ski magazines, and discarded boards form collages that refuse to look like anything else on Main Street.

“I’ve always been an artist,” Ray said. “Everything I’ve ever done has been based around my style and how things look.”

Ray’s back-of-the-house studio inside Main Street Gallery is easy to miss—until it isn’t. Step through the front room curated by gallery owner Amanda Sorenson, pass works by longtime local Chris O’Connell, and the scenery shifts from alpine vistas to raw, resin-sealed mashups of ski culture. The walls hold canvases, cardboard cutouts, and decommissioned Armada skis layered with aerosol bursts and magazine shards. The effect is equal parts street art and gear-shed memory lane.

Ray traced the project to a simple urge: make an old pair of skis “a history lesson in skiing.” The experiment spread, and last month he threw an opening party. Five pieces sold.

“That was kind of a proof of concept I’d been looking for,” he said.

Sales help, but the professional skier—he is wrapping a two-year film project with Armada—still leans on athletic sponsorships and a real-estate license to bankroll his art habit. Injuries nudged him out of full-time competition around age 21, yet the sport stays central to his vision.

“I really want to keep experimenting with ways to bridge the ski world with the art world,” he said. “So many legendary skiers have come through Park City and shaped everything my generation thinks is cool. If I can capture their stories on a canvas—or on a pair of old boards—then a kid who walks in off the street can see where our culture started. It’s about honoring the roots, passing them down and keeping the sport moving in the right direction.”

Ray’s approach stands out on a commercial strip best known for moose portraits and aspen groves.

“I don’t have any pictures of moose or aspen trees,” he said with a laugh. “It’s more raw and unfiltered. I want people to walk in, feel inspired and think, ‘I could do something like that,’ then go make their own thing.”

Mentorship has been limited—“It’s kind of just been all me,” he said—though O’Connell has offered pricing advice and a few navigational tips on Park City’s art economy. Challenges? Ray claims he looks past them, “this dream came alive because of all of my friends who helped out, especially my agent, Hans Wiener.”

“I try not to focus on the challenges and just picture opportunity,” he said.

Opportunity now means hosting monthly events to unveil fresh work and keep momentum alive. It also means embracing mixed reactions.

“Some people love it, and I’m sure some people walk in and think it’s absolute garbage,” he said. “If everybody liked it, you’re not doing anything authentic.”

Asked for one piece of guidance for emerging artists, Ray doesn’t hesitate.

“Just go for it,” he said. “Never listen to anyone except for yourself.”

That ethos has taken him from halfpipe starts to Main Street walls—proof, he hopes, that curiosity can carve new lines long after the contest lights dim.

Learn more about Cody Wilder Ray here.