Congratulations to MFA student Saúl Ramírez, whose work was recently reviewed in the Albuquerque Journal. Their thesis exhibit, “Seeds of Compromise: In Search of Digestive Architectures,” is currently on view at the AC2 Gallery. Journal staff writer Logan Roycen Beitmen writes the following regarding their work, “Ramírez’s wall installations seem to operate in the personal, domestic, quasi-spiritual space of memorialization or enshrinement, since the objects the artist chooses are personal in nature and their presentation lacks the regularized formality of museological or retail displays. People of many spiritual traditions have small home altars or shrines, and even nonreligious people often place special souvenirs or mementos on shelves alongside their favorite books, a practice that might be regarded as secular shrine-making. The works in “Seeds of Compromise” contain a mix of sacred, mundane and even potentially embarrassing objects one might find buried in an attic or closet. By reconfiguring them into shrine-like assemblages, Ramírez gets us to reconsider each object’s symbolic potential.”
Beitmen goes on to end his article by saying, “Ramírez’s practice involves struggling against, or struggling through, various texts and materials in search of an artistic, linguistic or even alchemical transformation. Whatever else the work is about, it is first and foremost “art about art” — an exploration of the processes by which artists turn the ugliness, filth, pain or even boredom of everyday life into something transcendent. Like Tlazolteotl, who can only create health and beauty by consuming filth and disease, or Persephone who can only create the bright fecundity of spring after journeying deep into the underworld, Ramírez metabolizes pain and suffering and produces visual poetry.” An incredible article by Beitmen based off of some inspiring work by Ramírez.
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EXPLORE the work of Saúl Ramírez by following on Instagram @basquache.
READ MORE at https://www.abqjournal.com/
