GUSTAVO RAMOS RIVERA WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY
GUSTOVO RAMOS RIVERA WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY
AL MAL TIEMPO BUENA CARA (A GOOD FACE FOR BAD TIMES)
A GOOD FACE FOR BAD TIMES
O
ver the past four decades, Gustavo Ramos Rivera has developed a unique visual language that manifests throughout his paintings, monotypes and collages. His playful and powerful abstract compositions can be read like a visual diary, the expression of which works on both intellectual and emotional levels. Ramos Rivera’s fields of rich color and glyph-like mark making recall both the work of Joan Miro, Paul Klee and Cy Twombly and the iconography of the indigenous cultural heritage of his native Mexico. The marriage of spontaneous linework with technicolor fields create a highly personal symbology that speaks to memory, experience and shared history. Ramos Rivera says of his practice, “Painting is a delightful devotion, a mirror of truth; it’s an invention of anything you want.” Gustavo Ramos Rivera was born in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico in 1940, and immigrated to the United States in 1969. He has lived and worked in San Francisco for over 40 years. Ramos Rivera’s work is in the permanent collections of prominent institutions including the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, The Mexican Museum in San Francisco and The Nevada Museum of Art. In 2006, the San Jose Museum of Art presented a retrospective exhibition of the artist’s work, which then traveled to additional institutions in California and Mexico.
Divertimento, 2009, oil on canvas, 84 x 84 inches
Nick, 2017, oil on canvas, 48” x 36”
Calypso Bay, oil on canvas, 72 x 120 inches
We All Belong, 2013, oil on canvas, 84 x 84 inches
Pablo et Wifredd un Rendezvous, 2014, oil on canvas, 84 x 84 inches
Dia de los Muertos, 2014, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
Who Can Stop The Rain, 2017, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
No Man’s Land, 2015, oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
Mad Madrigal, 2007, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches
April in Paris, 2014, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches
Construccion Perpetua (Perpetual Construction), 2010, oil on board, 48 x 48 inches
Rompe Hielo (Ice Breaker), 2013, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Purposeful Ramble, 2015, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
Milagros, 2011, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches
GUSTAVO RAMOS RIVERA SELECTED CV 1940 Born in Villa Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico San Francisco, CA , 1969 - present Selected Exhibitions 2017 “Al Mal Tiempo Buena Cara,” William Turner Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 2016 Sakata Garo Gallery, Sacramento, CA 2015 Elins Eagles Smith Gallery, San Franciso, CA 2013 Elins Eagles Smith Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2012 Sakata Garo Gallery, Sacramento, CA 2006 San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA 2006 San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA 2005 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2005 Ex Convento del Carmen, Guadalajara, Mexico. Travel: Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez, Zacatecas 2004 Galerie Dionisi, Hollywood, CA 2004 The Monotype Marathon,” San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA 1999 “The Art of Collaborative Printmaking: Smith Andersen Editions,” Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV. Travels to de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 1999 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1998 Smith Andersen Editions, Palo Alto, CA 1996 Galerie Rahn, Zurich, Switzerland 1996 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1994 Wilfred Von Guten Galerie, Thun, Switzerland 1994 Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1993 Galerie Rahn, Zurich, Switzerland 1993 “12 Bay Area Painters” Eureka Fellowship Winners, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA 1993 M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA 1993 Michael Dunev Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1991 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Joan Prats Gallery, New York, NY, The Painted Monotype 1991 Margulis Taplin Gallery, Miami, FL 1991 “Absence of Proof” Somar Gallery Space, San Francisco, CA 1990 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
1990 Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1990 “The Painted Monotype” Joan Prats Gallery, New York, NY 1989 Virginia Miller Gallery, Coral Gables, FL 1988 “Mind and Matter: New American Abstraction,” traveling exhibition to Asia, organized by World Print, San Francisco, CA 1988 “Mano a Mano” Santa Cruz Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of California, Santa Cruz and Oakland, CA 1986 “Art After Eden: An Unnatural Perspective” Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1986 “Alas y Raices” Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, CA 1985 “Mexico: The New Generations” San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX 1985 “Latin American Paining Today” The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA 1985 “Meridian: Art of the Americas” Art Commission Gallery, San Francisco,CA Select Collections Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, CA Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix, AZ Stanford University Hospitals, Palo Alto, CA Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Palo Alto, CA Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA Crocker Art Museum. Sacramento, California Museu De Arte Assis Chateaubriand, da Universidad de Paraiba, Brazil Museo Felguerez, Zacatecas, Mexico
Production: Rob Brander Photography: Rob Brander Text: Savannah Sjostrom All images copyright Gustavo Ramos Rivera and William Turner Gallery 2017 WILLIAM TURNER GALLERY 2525 Michigan Avenue E-1 Santa Monica, CA 90292 ph: 310.453.0909 Turnergallery@gmail.com www.williamturnergallery.com