Expo Chicago: Chicago

Ruiz-Healy Art is thrilled to present the work of Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Cecilia Paredes, and Chuck Ramirez to the 2022 Edition of EXPO CHICAGO, the international exposition of contemporary & modern art. This is the Gallery’s first time attending the fair and exhibiting in Chicago, Illinois. Datchuk, Paredes, and Ramirez use photography to explore themes of identity, transformation, and consumer culture. Together the artists intersect in their fascination with the natural world and cultural artifacts.

About the Artists

Trained in ceramics, Jennifer Ling Datchuk often uses a myriad of materials ranging from porcelain to textile and photography. Datchuk holds an MFA in Artisanry from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a BFA in Crafts from Kent State University.

Her practice focuses on gender, race, and identity. Twist and Curl uses bamboo as a motif, “Bamboo is a plant that can almost be invasive as it can grow in many different climates. It can also grow and accommodate around things. I see that as a metaphor for how women swerve around misogyny, patriarchy, sexism, and that we still try to thrive in that environment. We help each other, continue to find life, and nurture one another.” - Jennifer Ling Datchuk

Datchuk’s artwork is in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX.

Born in Lima, Peru, a country whose early civilizations revered nature, Cecilia Paredes often disguises herself against flora. Paredes studied Fine Arts at the Catholic University of Lima and Cambridge Arts in

the UK.

Each element in her body of work reminds the viewer of the fact that humans are but one element in nature, of which the body is a pristine expression. “I wrap, cover or paint my body with the same pattern of the material and represent myself as part of that landscape. Through this act, I am working on the theme of building my own identification with the entourage, part of the world where I live or where I feel I can call home.” – Cecilia Paredes.

Paredes' work is in the permanent collections of Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia; Natural World Museum, San Francisco, CA; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX.

Chuck Ramirez was a major force in the San Antonio art community before his untimely death in a 2010 cycling accident. Using typography and digital imaging technology, the artist isolates and recontextualizes familiar objects and texts to explore the human condition.

On Careyes Ramirez stated, "The practice of a ceaseless, compulsive consumption is something that is so engrained in American culture that most often, we forget it is even there. In Mexico quite the opposite occurs...if a creative new use for an object was found, it was immediately implemented."

His work is in the permanent collections of The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; The Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; 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.

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