
Bony Ramirez
Born in the Dominican Republic in 1996, artist Bony Ramirez creates works that reflect his Dominican heritage and the impact of violent European Colonialism on his home country. Working in multiple mediums, Ramirez’s unique practice of drawing his figures on paper and then pasting them to a painted wood panel adorned with various objects creates a distinct multi-dimensional effect that breathes life into his subjects. Often drawing inspiration from aspects of Mannerist and Renaissance paintings, Ramirez reclaims these otherwise colonialist influences by using them to tell stories of his own childhood. Here, in Del Mar Venimos, Ramirez presents two figures against a brilliant pink backdrop adorned with cowrie shells. The larger figure stares out at the viewer with a tear on their face; holding in their outstretched arms a small child whose eyes are closed and whose stylized arm extends to the ground. The distorted limbs of the two figures are unsettling--twisting and curling with a swollen color to them that lends this piece an element of Magical Realism as is typical of Ramirez’s style.