Carlos Ramirez

Carlos Ramirez was born in Cuba. For political reasons his family moved to the United States when he was a child. His family’s story is like that of many immigrants, and he recalls those early days in New York. As an adult I can now admire their courage and determination. In their late thirties they landed in a country where they didn’t speak the language, had no financial resources, and a small child. Ramirez always drew and painted, but as the only child of an immigrant family, his parents were concerned that he have a structured profession, rather than take a chance on a career as an artist. In college he focused on drawing and drafting in the hopes of pursuing an architectural degree, but at the last minute, due to the prodding of his father, he applied to law school. He received a full scholarship to the University of Miami Law School, where he excelled but soon realized his heart was not in it. In his last year he left the program to follow a vision of putting a fashion collection together. “I applied all of my drawing, sketching and design skills to this new endeavor,” he notes. At age 23, he established the label Liancarlo. The label has dressed dozens of celebrities, and his work has been featured in countless fashion magazines. Throughout the years of growing his business, he became a designer by day, painter by night, taking workshops with such greats as painter Wolf Kahn—making time to pursue this passion.

“My work plays the edge between abstraction and representational. Ink sketches within the work depicting leaves, petals, stones loosely reference nature, while the underlying structure and palette remain rooted in abstraction. This contrast between the recognizable and the obscure allows for the viewer to connect with the work on various levels. I presently live and work in Tucson, out of an airy light-filled studio that looks out to the mountains on one side and a sky-blue pool on the other. My work is a visual record of the world around me. It contains the experiences and moments that I carry with me, but not in a literal way. I am not interested in replicating nature, but in communicating the bits and pieces that have struck a cord with me. I am drawn to nature’s expanse, its color, and its all-encompassing aspect that makes us feel
small. My underpainting mostly resembles a labyrinth of lines and grids. These lines criss-cross the canvas, making connections within the work that lead you further into the piece. Obscuring most of this linear pattern is an interplay of thick and thin gestural strokes that create a tactile surface. White negative space brings a calming contrast to the paint, while also adding an element of restraint. This play on the delicate balance between chaos and order is a central theme that runs deeply through all my work.”