"And his "Coconut series," a triptych where Ramirez ticks elements off his checklist: playful dissection with melancholy undertones, revelation of stark contrast between interior and exterior, a moment of meditation on something captured already on its way to the trash. What’s easily overlooked in this particular series is the fibrous interstitial layer between skin and meat, representing all connective tissue that holds anything together. And here too comes the Ramirez dilemma, crux of value and meaning. Whether or not you are familiar with the disparaging joke (i.e. brown on the outside, white on the inside), neither was exactly true of him, exactly. On the outside, he was ruddy-faced, blond-haired, and blue-eyed. And on the inside, if Ramirez wasn’t all-white, it’s because that’s where the connective tissue of his grandmother dwelled." Sarah Fisch.