![Chuck Ramirez, Whatacup, 2002](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1600,h_1600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/ruizhealyart/images/view/defefd551eb97422920d8a706b62722dj/ruiz-healyart-chuck-ramirez-whatacup-2002.jpg)
Chuck Ramirez American, 1962-2010
or 28 x 20 in, 71.1 x 50.8 cm
Whatacup was part of Chuck Ramirez’s “Bean & Cheese” exhibition, which came from his 2002 Artpace, San Antonio Artist in Residency Program. “In his 2008 interview with David Rubin, which occurred before a live audience, Ramirez addressed some of his canonical works, including the chocolate trays he illuminated and photographed. He took particular care to explore one of his other personal favorites: Whatacup. He explained that the legend it bore drew him to this particular object in addition to its formal elements. “That little first-person statement said, ‘When I am empty, please dispose of me properly.’ And it just seemed to typify everything I was trying to talk about — about this consumption. It seemed like an epitaph for something, for this cup.” Much has been and should be made of the theme of mortality running through Ramirez’s work. Having been diagnosed with HIV in 1990, he labored under the sentence until the late ’90s, during which time protease inhibitors and other post-AZT cocktail treatments began lengthening the lives of the positive. But even beyond this lived memento mori, Ramirez struggled with the tensions between disposability and value in his life and larger human culture.” Fisch, Sarah. “Chuck Ramirez Career Retrospective Spans Venues, Decades, and Distance,” San Antonio Current, September 13, 2017.
Exhibitions
Day Jobs, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, CA; curators: Veronica Roberts and Jorge Sibaja, 2024.Day Jobs, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; curators: Veronica Roberts and Lynne Maphies, 2023.
Chuck Ramirez: Metaphorical Portraits, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, TX; 2020.Chuck Ramirez: All This and Heaven Too, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; curators: Rene Paul Barilleaux and Hilary Schroeder, 2017.
Prematurely Discarded: Photography of Chuck Ramirez, Octavia Art Gallery, Houston, TX; curator: Illa Gaunt, 2015
Chuck Ramirez: Minimally Baroque, Ruiz-Healy Art, and Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX; curator: Victor Zamudio-Taylor 2011.
Chuck Ramírez: Bean & Cheese, International Artist-in-Residence Program, Artpace, San Antonio, TX; curator: Jérôme Sans, 2002
Literature
Schiffman, Rebecca. “Day Jobs.” The Brooklyn Rail. June 2024.
Wexler, Ellen, “How Artists’ Day Jobs Shape Their Craft,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 10, 2023.
Mallonee, Laura. “In a New Exhibit, Artists Find the Sublime at Whataburger and the Supreme Court.” Texas Monthly, April 25, 2023.
Fisch, Sarah. “Chuck Ramirez Career Retrospective Spans Venues, Decades and Distance,” San Antonio Current, September 12, 2017.
Publications
Exhibition Catalogue, Day Jobs, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX and Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; editor: Veronica Roberts, 2023-2024, p. 256 (illustrated)Exhibition Catalogue, Chuck Ramirez: Metaphorical Portraits, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, TX; editor: Patricia Ruiz-Healy, Ph.D., 2020, p. 3, 9 (illustrated)
Exhibition Catalogue, Chuck Ramirez: All This and Heaven Too, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX, 2017 (illustrated)
Exhibition Catalogue, Chuck Ramírez: Minimally Baroque, Ruiz-Healy Art, and Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX; editor: Anjali Gupta, 2011, p. 34, cover page (illustrated)
Exhibition brochure, Bean & Cheese, Artpace, San Antonio, TX, 2002 (illustrated)