"Urban Grid"
"Swirl"
Artist: Abel Ramirez
Location: Building 7 - 33-35 N. Broadway Unibanc (View Map)
Contact:
630-886-0024
Abel_Ramirez@hotmail.com
Abel Ramirez was born and raised in Aurora, IL. A graduate of East Aurora High School in 1992, he was named “Artist of the Year” for his creative work. Abel attended the University of Illinois in Champaign /Urbana and graduated with a bachelors degree in Fine & Applied Art with a concentration in painting. After working in graphic design for a year, he attended Columbia College in Chicago to study film and animation. Later, he interned with a video production company, a position that entailed traveling to both Los Angeles and New York. Until 2002, he worked as a Production Assistant in Los Angeles. In 1998, Abel apprenticed as a tattoo artist and has been practicing the ancient art ever since. In addition to painting by brush and inking by needle, Abel is also experienced in digital art, airbrushing, and digital music production.
One inspiration for the art I do comes from the appreciation of other styles of art. I blend graffiti aesthetic with abstract process/ sensibilities, but I will also incorporate pop media into my style. Generally speaking, these styles are just carriers for some essence that I can’t quite capture in words. But sometimes I will begin a piece with no predetermined direction and end up being reminded of something that I had previously noticed in my environment or in human nature. For example, I have lately been filtering in my observations of how land is parceled up and re-configured by humans. Seen from overhead by an airplane, the landscape takes on the look of a circuit board or maybe a complex juxtaposition of shapes. The "Urban Complex" series of paintings reflects this observation but not in a straightforward way. I don’t like to tell people what they should see in a painting or tell them "what it means." Doing that influences their perceptions and deductions. Good art has its own influence and functions without the artist's explanations.
