Rafael López-Ramos

Artist Statement

"The emblem of the automobile as an embodiment of the promise of America as an icon of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness would permeate the entire culture, Catholic and Protestant alike, and this metaphor of corporeal intelligence would be reinforced throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties."

Dave Hickey, Air Guitar

The bliss of mechanical mobility that once elevated us to an almost godly level now may be turning us into a plague. In a city designed to be driven, not walked, "your car is like your shoes", as the local mantra asserts, and the landscape is fashioned from crowded highways and streets coexisting with manicured public gardens mostly comprised of non-native invasive plants, which themselves are elegantly reflected in the glistening bumpers of 4-wheel-drive trucks and SUVs retailed by patriotic car dealers who decorate their dealerships with American flags to highlight that "embodiment of the promise of America" that critic Dave Hickey refers to.

Digital images document such an environment, reflecting fragments of this mixed landscape where conflicting elements dialogue with each other. The buildings glass facades reflect the pack of cars whose windshields and bumpers in turn reflect the Washington and Cardboard Palms, the Surinam Cherries, and the red Ixora flowers planted throughout the city. These deceptively beautiful images, which are later translated onto painted canvases, carry an imbedded warning about where this nonsensical superhighway may be taking us. Thus, these photos and paintings are landscapes with a twist: here nature converses with one of the greatest symbols of our civilization in what seems to be a very difficult negotiation.

Exhibition specifics

The proposed show would display my art production since early 2007 when moved to Miami from Vancouver, Canada, being a non car-driving person (please see statement below). It would encompass the following artworks:

13 paintings done with acrylic on canvas, ranging from big to medium scale (ie. 69” x 54” to 20” x 24”), they were created by counterpointing the photographic referential images with a sort of expressionist painterly brushwork resulting in a painting that still could be considered realistic.

Brickell Twilight, acrylic / canvas, 20" x 20 ", 2008

Flag, Air conditioner & sign, acrylic / canvas, 18" x 24", 2007

Inter-sections, latex & acrylic / canvas, 20" x 24", 2009

Red Van at Coral Way, acrylic / canvas, 24" x 20", 2009

Glass wall, acrylic / canvas, 24" x 30 ", 2007

Surinam Cherries in Miami, acrylic / canvas, 24" x 30 ", 2008

Selfportrait & Garden on Headlights, acrylic / canvas, 24" x 30 ", 2008

Wheel-mirror-nature, acrylic / canvas, 311/2" x 393/8" - 80 x 100 cm, 2008