Paul Ramirez Jonas

Paul Ramirez Jonas
Born 1965
Pomona, California
Nationality American
Education Brown University,
Rhode Island School of Design

Paul Ramirez Jonas (born 1965, Pomona, California[1]) is a contemporary artist and arts educator whose work currently explores the potential between artist and audience, artwork and public. Many of Ramirez Jonas' projects use pre-existing texts, models, or materials to reenact or prompt actions and reinsert himself into his own audience. His work has participated in the Johannesburg Biennale, the Seoul Biennial, the Shanghai Biennial, the 28th São Paulo Biennial and the 53rd Venice Biennale.

Education

In 1987, Ramirez Jonas graduated with a BA from Brown University, and went on to earn his MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989.[2]

Work

In 2008 at the 28th São Paulo Biennial, Ramirez Jonas arranged for members of the public to a receive a key to the front door of the biennial venue, the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion. Each person who received a key was required to leave behind a copy of one of their own keys as well as sign a contract that established an agreement between themselves, the curators, the artist and the biennial foundation.[3]

For the 7th Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2009, Ramirez Jonas altered three large boulders by carving into them a space for monument plaques to be placed. Instead of creating permanent monuments to a State honored figure or event, he turned the monuments into platforms for cork boards for the fleeting message or personal note-the ephemeral voice of his public.

In the summer of 2010, Ramirez Jonas created the Key to the City project in New York City with Creative Time.[4] Keys were distributed until June 27, the locks will remain accessible throughout the summer, until September 4, 2010.[5]

Ramirez Jonas has said of his work: "I create as I speak: I consider myself merely a reader of texts. The pre-existing text I treat as a score: a diary, an old photo, a footpath, music, etc. The reading can take the form of performance, sculpture, photo, or video. Thus, a musical score results in a sculpture, a diary, in a video, or the plans for a flying machine in a photo. In my works, what looks like invention is but re-enactment. Being a reader, don't I have more in common with the public than with the author? I find that commonality in working with pre-existing materials."

Ramirez Jonas sees his role as "extending beyond the private reader, and into someone who invites viewers to join in. The result of this shift is the reassertion of a contract between the artwork and its public."

He is represented by Koenig & Clinton in New York, Bjorkholmen Gallery[1] in Sweden and Galeria Nara Roesler in Brazil.[6]

Ramirez Jonas has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, Cal Arts, Columbia University, New York University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.[7]

He currently lives and works in New York, teaches studio art at Hunter College[7] and is married to fellow RISD alumnus Janine Antoni.

References

  1. 1 2 "Paul Ramirez Jonas". www.bjorkholmengallery.com. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  2. ↑ "Paul Ramírez Jonas". Creative Time Reports. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  3. ↑ Hoffmann, Jens (2009-01-01). "28th Sao Paulo Biennial". Frieze Magazine. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  4. ↑ http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2010/keytothecity/
  5. ↑ Kennedy, Randy (2010-06-23). "Artist’s ‘Key to the City’ Is One Woman’s Date Night". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  6. ↑ "Paul Ramirez Jonas work". Nara Roesler Gallery (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  7. 1 2 "Faculty and Staff: Paul Ramirez Jonas". Hunter College. Retrieved 2015-12-17.

External links

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