"In 2002 Ramirez was invited by guest curator Jérôme Sans, Co-director of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France, to be the Texas representative for the New Works: 02.1 International Artist-in-Residence cycle. For his Artpace residency, Ramirez used a commercial studio to produce 17 large-scale photographs of items referencing food. The first series of 12 images consisted of images of raw meat-a whole chicken, sausage links, a beef steak-laid bare on the artist’s signature sterile white background. Two photographs featured empty candy trays that represented unattainable fulfillment and desire. He also displayed two full-frame images of fruit cocktail and green peas. Taken straight from the can, these fruits and vegetables are magnified to epic proportions; the mixed fruit recalling the complexities of multicultural mixing, and the peas signifying the sameness of humankind." Artpace publication, 2002.