CARLOS RAMIREZ
A Faster Hallelujah

On view April 4 – April 25, 2020

Thinkspace is pleased to present new works from Carlos Ramirez in A Faster Hallelujah, opening April 4. This upcoming show perfectly illustrates Ramirez’s evolution as an artist. His oeuvre remains alluring and magical while simultaneously offering satirical commentary on political and social issues on behalf of the oppressed.

Ramirez was born in 1967 in the Coachella Valley (California) where he is currently based. He was formerly part of the artist collaboration The Date Farmers with Armando Lerma for over a decade. The duos work was exhibited in museums such as Oakland Museum of California, Laguna Art Museum and Palm Springs Art Museum. The Date Farmers began working independently in 2017.

Carlos’ works are layered reflections of a polymorphous identity; foreign yet familiar perspectives existing in a liminal reality between cultures, collecting ephemera and detritus, and combining it into playful assemblage pieces. Ramirez’s work often speaks of the inequalities within Mexican American communities and often champions the common man as underdog.

His work is tremendously resourceful, scavenging for creative materials within various desert locales. The work is replete with layers and textures intertwined with the political while being disguised as popular. Works include a combination of house paint,, sparkly stickers, handwritten bilingual text, rusted bottle caps, discarded packaging, and an iconic stylized use of acrylic paint with deeply layered figurative workings. Snakes, spiders, scorpions, and other bits of nature from his hometown appear mixed in with Catholic symbolism, aliens, perceived gang members, pop-culture references, and commercial imagery, giving brand logos and religious icons the same attention and placement.