CHUCK RAMIREZ | CHUCK RAMIREZ IN COLLABORATION WITH RUIZ-HEALY ART

November 12 - January 20, 2012

November 2, 2011 (Miami, FL) – Dina Mitrani Gallery is pleased to present Chuck Ramirez (1962 – 2010): Minimally Baroque, an exhibition curated in collaboration with Ruiz-Healy Art from San Antonio TX.  Chuck Ramirez, who tragically died one year ago, was an artist and designer who lived and worked in San Antonio, Texas. His large-scale photographic portraits and installations of ordinary objects are humorous, yet poignant metaphors for the transient nature of consumer culture and the frailty of life. 

Gallery owner Dina Mitrani met Ramirez at an opening for her husband’s artwork at Ruiz-Healy’s Gallery in San Antonio.  During the course of the evening, they talked enthusiastically about his photography and the possibility of exhibiting in Miami.  Two days later, the artist had a biking accident and passed away.  This exhibition is an homage to his memory, and an effort by both Patricia Ruiz-Healy and Dina Mitrani to bring his life’s work to larger audiences. Therefore, the exhibition will run through ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH, and there will be a breakfast reception on Thursday, December 1st, 9am – noon and will also remain open during Wynwood Art Walk on Saturday, December 3rd through 10pm.  

As an artist and graphic designer, Ramirez processed and deconstructed the media world in which he lived. His work employed visual and conceptual techniques found in contemporary advertising and package design, while employing subtle social commentary.  Included in the exhibition are the decadent chocolate trays, the amusing purse and suitcase portraits of close friends and associates, and his broom and Cayeres series; Ramirez used typography and digital imaging technology by isolating and re-contextualizing familiar objects to explore the human condition. 

Chuck Ramirez showed extensively throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. Solo and group exhibitions include the Bronx Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; El Portal del Arte Contemporáneo (ARCO) Madrid; Centro de la Imagen and O Lamm, Mexico City; Galeries Khadrberlin, Berlin; Arlington Museum of Contemporary Art, TX; Center of the Visual Arts, Denver; the Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria, Austin, TX; the Institute of Visual Arts, Milwaukee; Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio; and the Elizabeth Dee Gallery, NY.  He was selected for an Artpace Residency in 2001 by Jérôme Sans, an independent curator and co-director of the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. 

The estate of Chuck Ramirez is exclusively represented by Ruiz-Healy Art. Ruiz-Healy Art deals in modern and contemporary works of Latin American art including painting, sculpture, photography and works on paper in San Antonio. Dina Mitrani Gallery specializes in international contemporary photography in Miami’s Wynwood Art District.

More information www.ruizhealyart.com