Ramirez retrospective includes stunning, if not the artist’s best, works

Of the four shows at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center that mark Fotoseptiembre this year, no doubt the most anticipated is “Minimally Baroque,” a retrospective of the strangely affecting photography of Chuck Ramirez, the much beloved local artist who died last November in a bicycle accident. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Ramirez took the skills that he used to design catalogues and product labels to transform objects from beyond the periphery of consumer desire — worn-out dust brooms, wilting flower arrangements — into chic, radiant images. Ramirez was a master of rasquachismo, art that elevates the simple, often cast-off remnants of everyday life to high art status. He faithfully depicted the undervalued bits of the local, but the art that resulted is far from vernacular.

The works selected by curator Victor Zamudio- Taylor for the Blue Star retrospective leave out some of Ramirez’ most well-known pieces, such as his iconic photograph of a heart-shaped chocolate box liner, but instead offer a rare view of Ramirez’ method of working in sequences, presenting several almost-complete collections of his most minimalist series.

The earliest work in the exhibition is Ramirez’ 1996 Santos, arraying photographs of the seldom-seen bottoms of saint statuettes in a grid that the artist modeled after the opening sequence of the early 1970s television sitcom The Brady Bunch. The octagonal or oblong bases of each wood or clay figure give little evidence of their identity, but are accompanied with text that names the TV characters in Spanish. Another early work, 1997’s Coconut series, also contains political comment. The three large digital prints show a sequence illustrating the insult, “brown on the outside but white on the inside.” These two works serve as introduction to the larger series. Though he was HIV-positive and Latino, Ramirez’ work does not choose sides in the culture wars, embracing instead an acute understanding of change, drifting identity, and the perilously transient nature of life.

In each photograph he depicts one object on a shadowless white background. Seen in multiple, both the formal and emotional qualities of the works are accentuated. 2007’s Broom series lines the long back wall with images of much-used brooms found abandoned on the west coast of Mexico. Seen from afar, their broken tops of blue, yellow, and tawny hues seem so many blooms tossed by the wind.

The Quarantine series of 2000 demands a closer view. The photos depict wilting flower arrangements, the cheap easily obtained sorts seen in passing the doorways of empty hospital rooms. The wilting blooms hint at a final removal, instead of regained health.

The 1998 Trash Bag series show brimming plastic garbage bags; some are black, their contents a mystery, they read instead as solid sculptural forms, while others are clear plastic, their titles, like Vegan, give clues to the vaguely revealed contents.

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