Chuck Ramirez American, 1962-2010
Long Term Survivor: Dancing, No Cover, 1999
Three-channel videos, black-and-white, silent; 4-min. looped
Edition of 10
“I started to live after I found out that I was HIV positive,” Ramirez said. He created Long-Term Survivor (1999) shortly after his diagnosis. The project— which included photographs of...
“I started to live after I found out that I was HIV positive,” Ramirez said. He created Long-Term Survivor (1999) shortly after his diagnosis. The project— which included photographs of leather chaps, a plastic pill box, and a video of a rotating silver cock ring– bravely and unapologetically examined sexual desire and the will to live in the age of AIDS. Ramirez said that much of his work revolved around his queer identity, and his health struggles infused his photographs with a quiet sensitivity to the impermanence of life. As writer Sarah Fisch said, “His mortality was no abstraction. For Chuck, death was a motivator, a commentator, a constant.” - HyperAllergic, “Chuck Ramirez, the Heartfelt Photographer of Trash and Banal Throwaways” by Lauren Moya Ford
Exhibitions
Chuck Ramirez, Long Term Survivor, Ruiz-Healy Art at The Armory Show, New York, NY; curator: Carla Acevedo Yates, 2022Chuck Ramirez: Metaphorical Portraits, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, 2020
Chuck Ramirez: All This and Heaven Too, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; curators: Rene Barrilleaux and Hilary Schroeder, 2017
Chuck in Context, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, TX, 2017
Chuck Ramírez: Minimally Baroque, Ruiz-Healy Art, and Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX; curator: Victor Zamudio-Taylor, 2011
Long-Term Survivor, Hudson Showroom, Artpace, San Antonio, TX, 1999
