Blessed with Beauty
Blessed with Beauty (...and rage), Chelsea Ramirez Charcoal, acrylic, and collage on paper mounted onto panel, 20” x 17” x 2” 2018
The mechanics of the human experience is a constant flux of drifting images grounded by distinct visuals that focus our sentimental attachments to identity. With a focus on objects, the images expand on the humanist stance of object-oriented ontology—equality between individual objects referencing their deemed importance in our daily routine. This relationship is established by us, an anthropocentric perspective on the domestic object.
Memento - a keepsake that reminds us of a specific person or situation.
As mixed media drawings, visually fleeting but highly recognized memorials provide power, identity, and agency to the Latinx community: the majestic, majority, and still underrepresented Latinx existence. As tangible representations, mementos evolve into emotionally delicate beings by proxy. These vigils, candlelit, figurative dedications, represent a constant fight against the active absence and erasure of a people. Through thingly portrayals, the radiance of the being y la Luz de Vida is lit... forever.
Chelsea Ramirez is first generation Colombian-American born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She is known for her gestural, charcoal drawings and mixed media experimentations dealing with identity and community. She received her B.F.A from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and continued her study of drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art and Design in Scotland and the New York Studio School in NYC. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.