Chuck Ramirez American, 1962-2010

As an artist and art director, Chuck Ramirez processed and deconstructed the media world in which he lived. Ramirez explored cultural identity, mortality, and consumerism through his photographs and installations. His work subverted stereotypes of those who cross cultural boundaries. Using typography and digital imaging technology, Ramirez isolates and recontextualizes familiar objects and texts to explore the human condition. Ramirez resurrects waste—photographing filled garbage bags, dying flowers, and battered, empty piñatas—reflecting on the fleeting nature of human existence. Working with materials and images that were part of his daily life—a life impacted by being HIV positive—he transformed the language and power of advertising into a call for action, compassion, expression, and self-actualization.

In 2002, guest curator Jerome Sans selected him for the Artpace San Antonio Artist-in-Residence program. In 2017, the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, organized the first significant survey of his work, Chuck Ramirez: All This and Heaven Too. Prestigious institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY, The Blanton Museum, Austin, TX, The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, TX, have recently acquired his work. His work has been reviewed by Artforum, Art in America, and Hyperallergic, among other publications. Ramirez’s work has also been a part of numerous exhibitions, notably including Shifting Landscapes, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, Day Jobs, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX and Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Besides the above-mentioned museum collections, his work is in numerous permanent museum collections, among others: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; The Pérez Art Museum (PAMM), Miami, FL; The San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; The European Museum of Photography, Paris, France; The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY; Ruby City, San Antonio, TX. 

Chuck Ramirez was a significant force in the San Antonio art community before his untimely death in a 2010 cycling accident. Ruiz-Healy is the exclusive representative of his estate.