Garcia Catalog
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JOE RAMIRO GARCIA<br />
OPTIMIST
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Joe Ramiro <strong>Garcia</strong><br />
Optimist<br />
October 28 - December 4.2016<br />
LewAllenGalleries<br />
1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250<br />
www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com<br />
cover: Paint Swatch, 2016, oil on canvas over panel, 17 x 15 in
Joe Ramiro <strong>Garcia</strong> Optimist<br />
The distinctive imagery and highly energetic palette of Joe Ramiro <strong>Garcia</strong>’s paintings and collages<br />
evoke a sense of the familiar through different modes of iconography, examining the deepest and<br />
most unusual remnants of our shared cultural memory.<br />
A highly regarded artist with a strong printmaking background, <strong>Garcia</strong> juxtaposes Pop Art’s<br />
cultural iconography with an expressionistic, painterly aesthetic. An air of the familiar exists<br />
within the figurative elements of his painting; the wordplay associations, the blurriness of past<br />
recollection, even of late-night TV, his characters and cartoons sprung from both memory and the<br />
memorabilia of the past and the present. His technical approach relies on oils, brushes, scrapers,<br />
and a hand-applied lithographic technique that forms painted surfaces which operate in a middle<br />
ground between painting, lithograph, and collage.<br />
Alternating between flat abstraction and a convincing trompe l’oeil, <strong>Garcia</strong>’s fragmented<br />
suggestions of space read like nimble imprints of the machinations of memory. With no attempt<br />
to emulate conventional notions of composition, these elements animate a space that seems<br />
at once recognizable and eerily enigmatic -- a tableau of discordant but vaguely familiar players<br />
depicting a mysterious, enticing whole.<br />
While they lack an explicit narrative, <strong>Garcia</strong>’s pieces evoke a different type of logic; his reflections<br />
on sensation and paradox, mortality, joviality and nostalgia all add to the weight of his work.<br />
Playing with the familiar and the extraordinary, with so-called childhood imagery in an “adult”<br />
context, <strong>Garcia</strong> obviously relishes disrupting hierarchies to get at the universal. The artist asserts,<br />
“I hope to displace the familiar just enough to encourage re-familiarization with the constant<br />
flux of urban experience.” By referencing both popular culture and private experiences,his<br />
psychologically resonant paintings navigate between the satisfaction of instant recognition and<br />
the riddle of a fantasy or elusive memory.<br />
Born in Houston, Texas, <strong>Garcia</strong> attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual<br />
Arts before studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was honored in 2005 with<br />
a Painters and Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Exhibited in museums and<br />
private institutions internationally, his works are featured in several books on Southwestern art.<br />
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Thinking of Painting, 2016, oil on panel, 24 x 24 in
Fair Game, 2016, oil on canvas, 17 x 15 in<br />
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Nobody Cares, 2016, oil on canvas, 17 x 19 in
Ice House, 2016, oil on canvas, 30 x 22 in<br />
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Check List, 2016, oil on canvas, 42 x 42 in
St. Vincent, 2016, oil on canvas, 36 x 42 in<br />
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Thicket, 2016, mixed media on board, 6 x 6 in
Real World, 2016, mixed media on paper, 12 1/2 x 10 1/4 in<br />
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Unfinished Business,2016, oil on canvas, 36 x 42 in
Beauty Box, 2016, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 in<br />
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Dark Beer, 2016, mixed media on board, 5 x 7 in
Numbers Game, 2016, oil on canvas, 19 x 17 in<br />
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More Energy, 2016, oil on canvas, 15 x 15 in
That’s All, 2016, mixed media on paper, 8 x 14 1/2 in<br />
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Holiday, 2016, mixed media on paper, 13 x 15 in
Happy Ending, 2016, mixed media on paper, 14 1/2 x 9 in<br />
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Return, 2016, oil on canvas, 15 x 15 in
Salt, 2016, mixed media on board, 8 x 5 1/2 in<br />
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Joe Ramiro <strong>Garcia</strong> b. 1966, Houston, TX<br />
EDUCATION<br />
1985-86 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL<br />
1982-85 High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston, TX<br />
SOLO EXHIBITIONS<br />
2016 Optimist, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2014 Transference, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2012 Look Into the Sun, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM<br />
But Seriously..., Blue Gallery, Kansas City, MO<br />
2010 Urban Reconnaissance, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2008 Karaoke, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2007 Pan American Art Projects, Dallas, TX<br />
2006 True Grit, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2005 Davis & Cline Galleries, Ashland, OR<br />
Pan American Art Gallery, Dallas, TX<br />
Cress Gallery, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, TN<br />
2004 LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM<br />
MainSite Contemporary Art, Norman, OK<br />
2003 Handsel Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; also 1998-2002<br />
2002 MainSite Contemporary Art, Norman, OK; also 1999-2001<br />
2001 Sophia Georg Gallery, Denver, CO<br />
2000 Sloane Jordan Gallery, Austin, TX<br />
1999 Sophia Georg Gallery, Denver, CO<br />
1995 Taos Mosaic Gallery, Taos, NM, also 1993<br />
The Courtyard Collection, Los Angeles, CA<br />
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS<br />
2013 Visualizing a Presence, Heimbold Visual Arts Center,<br />
Bronxville, NY<br />
Summer Group Exhibition, LewAllen Contemporary Art,<br />
Scottsdale, AZ<br />
2009 Summer Group Exhibition, Scott White Contemporary,<br />
San Diego, CA<br />
Scope Basel, Pan American Art Projects, Basel, Switzerland<br />
Group Exhibition, Pan American Art Projects, Dallas, TX<br />
2008 Selected Works, Untitled Art Space, Oklahoma City, OK<br />
2007 Deconstructions, Pan American Art Projects, Miami, FL<br />
Check Out, Pan American Art Projects, Dallas, TX<br />
2006 Artistas Contemporaneos del Rio Grande, Visual Arts<br />
Gallery, Santa Fe Community College, Santa Fe, NM<br />
Diptychs, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2005 Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA<br />
Interpreting the Sacred, Owings Dewey North, Santa Fe, NM<br />
Small Works, LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2004 Modes and Methods, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX<br />
Loose Ends, Second Street Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2003 Winter Show, Fresh Art Gallery, Denver, CO<br />
Dog Head Stew, Institute of American Indian Arts Museum,<br />
Santa Fe, NM; and Paul Mesaros Gallery, West Virginia<br />
University, Morgantown, WV<br />
The Show, Southwest Juried Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts,<br />
Santa Fe, NM<br />
Art in Embassies Program, Exhibition for the United States<br />
Chief of Mission to Cuba, Havana, Cuba<br />
Peace Show, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM<br />
First Impressions and the Comic Book, El Museo Cultural,<br />
Santa Fe, NM<br />
Monothon, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM; also 1997-2002<br />
2002 Western States Small Works, Sonoma Museum of Visual Art,<br />
Santa Rosa, CA<br />
Rocky Mountain Biennial 2002, Museum of Contemporary<br />
Art, Fort Collins, CO<br />
Ravens in Winter, Guadalupe Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM<br />
Postcard Love Notes to the Land, Munson Gallery, Santa Fe,<br />
NM; also 2000-2001<br />
2001 Site Unseen, James Kelly Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, NM<br />
White Show, Handsel Gallery, Santa Fe, NM<br />
2000 The Element Show, Helix Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM<br />
Show Heart, Sophia Georg Gallery, Denver, CO<br />
The American Landscape: A Contemporary Perspective,<br />
MainSite Contemporary Art, Norman, Oklahoma<br />
Millennium Show, Deloney Newkirk Gallery, Santa Fe, NM<br />
1998 Monotype Exhibition, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA<br />
1997 Master Printer Invitational, Brian Marki Gallery, Portland, OR<br />
1996 Art with Heart, Horwitch/LewAllen Gallery, Santa Fe, NM<br />
Arte Contemporaneo por Hispanos, Gallery Plaza Real,<br />
Santa Fe, NM<br />
1993-99 Contemporary Hispanic Market, Santa Fe Plaza, Santa Fe, NM<br />
1993 Voyeur—A Show of the Erotic, Rod Goebel Gallery, Taos, NM<br />
1992 Quincentennial Perspective: Artists Discover Columbus,<br />
Castillo Cultural Center, New York, NY<br />
1984 Surfaces III—Man Made Surfaces, Art League of Houston, TX<br />
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Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250<br />
www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com<br />
© 2016 LewAllen Contemporary LLC<br />
Artwork © Joe Ramiro <strong>Garcia</strong>
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