PRESS RELEASE
For more information call (323) 937-4267
ITURRALDE GALLERY announces the exhibition “Hay mitos que envejecen / Aging Myths” by Mexican artist MARCOS RAMIREZ “ERRE”. The show will open with a reception for the artist on Friday, May 21 from 7 to 9 PM. The show will run through July 2, 1999
Marcos Ramírez “Erre” was born in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico in 1961. He studied law at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. He has exhibited throughout Mexico and in the United States since 1993. Ramírez is best known for his installation Century 21 at the Centro Cultural Tijuana commissioned for inSITE’94 and for his repeat participation in inSITE’97 where he presented “Toy an Horse”, a magnificent 30 foot two-headed wooden horse, placed right in the middle of the San Ysidro border crossing. His critically acclaimed exhibition “Amor como primer idioma / Love as First Language” is currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.
This will mark Ramírez’s second solo show at Iturralde, following his critically acclaimed 1996 installation “187 Pairs of Hands” which first made its debut at the Centro Cultural Tijuana and then traveled to the Havana Biennial in 1997.
“Hay mitos que envejecen / Aging Myths” presents fourteen works in which Ramírez pays homage to Andy Warhol. Thirty years after Warhol’s famous portraits of celebrities, Ramírez is pairing together personalities from Latin America, the United States and Europe, creating portraits that are sometimes a political and social criticism and other times question morals and values. Pairings include: Frida Kahlo / María Felix; John F. Kennedy / Richard Nixon; John Lennon / Paul McCartney; Che / Fidel Castro and Pinocchio / Augusto Pinochet. In the pairings, the top “legend” died at a young age, forever retaining a mythical aura, the second “legend” lives, struggles, makes mistakes, is considered a myth but is also a human being.
All of the works follow Warhol’s pop style. Ramírez used automotive paint & silk-screens, which were then mounted on aluminum plates.
Marcos Ramírez “Erre” was born in Tijuana and raised in Tijuana and San Diego. His homage to Warhol is the vision of a person who grew up in the border, watching both Mexican and American television, growing up with Chespirito, El Chapulín Colorado and Superman at the same time and listening to the music of Pedro Infante and the Beatles. He was quoted in a recent article for the San Diego Union “Chicano artists often have a problem of feeling they have left their culture behind. They learn a new language but forget the old one –-and that’s sad. It’s good not to forget anything. Instead of feeling half Mexican and half American, I feel double.”
“MARCOS RAMIREZ ‘ERRE’:
HAY MITOS QUE ENVEJECEN / AGING MYTHS”
Where: ITURRALDE GALLERY
154 N. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone (323) 937-4267; Fax (323) 937-4269
E-mail: itugal@ni.net
Web site, http://artscenecal.com/Iturralde.html
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday 10AM to 5PM, Saturday 11AM to 5PM
Return to Marcos Ramirez "Erre" Essays
Return to Marcos Ramirez "Erre"