RAMIRO GOMEZ Happy Hills

Transcription

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2 Ramiro Gomez was born on June 24th, 1986 in San Bernardino, CA. His parents immigrated from Mexico and established themselves in the Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles.In 2009, Ramiro moved to West Hollywood and took a job as a live-in nanny for an affluent family. While on duty, he observed the many Latino workers who would arrive daily to assist in the household maintenance. Growing up as a member of a working class Hispanic family, Ramiro sympathized with their work and began a series of observational drawings that would later form the body of work he titled. This body of work, the artist explains, is a documentation of the predominantly Hispanic workforce who work tirelessly behind the scenes to maintain the beautiful imagery of these affluent areas. Through the help of social media, Gomez s paintings and street installations in Beverly Hills began to garner attention. The immigrant experience is the exclusive focus of Ramiro and he continues to expand his work in a public manner. His practice honors the contributions of the many individuals who work diligently on a daily basis to provide a better life for themselves and their families.

3 No Splash 58 x 41 Acrylic on panel

4 A 1930 s dining room table, oh, and Erlina cleaning Olympia et Janus et Cie

5 Beatriz on a Break Alejandra

6 Antolina Fuentes Aracely in the Kitchen

7 Blanca s Balancing Act Careful with the vase, Aracely

8 Carlos and the Bougainvillea Eduardo the Day Laborer

9 Esperanza Estela and Dylan

10 Gloria in Transit Graciela on the Patio

11 Hugo and Leo Jael waits for his check

12 Informal Dinner 1 Informal Dinner 2

13 Jiminez Landscaping Services Leticia

14 Lucinda gently picks up the flower vase Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams + Maria

15 Mop, Ernestina, mop Myra and the kids

16 Nemesio at the end of his workday Please be careful with the box Genaro and Carlos

17 Reyna takes her seat Rosa in the living room

18 Rosario Cleaning Zulma and the vacuum cleaner

19 Toño and the pool Veronica cleans the mirrors

20 Yahaira with the laundry basket Yesenia

21 Eva in the Kitchen RAMIRO GOMEZ

22 The Caretakers West Hollywood Mural, Sept 2013 The City of West Hollywood through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission presents The Caretakers (Los Cuidadores), a new art installation of painted workers installed as a series of figurative murals in West Hollywood Park by Ramiro Gomez, a local artist who lives and works in West Hollywood. Ramiro Gomez is known for making visible the invisible workforce of westside communities by installing life-size cardboard cutouts of nannies, gardeners, valet workers and housekeepers in and around West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and other westside locations. Ramiro Gomez sees the City of West Hollywood as a diverse blend of people from many different ethnic and social backgrounds, connecting specifically with the many people who work in various domestic and service-oriented jobs in the city. I am constantly walking around or finding inspiration in the various, brief situations I come across, such as the nanny pushing a stroller, a housekeeper waiting for the bus, a gardener trimming a hedge, or a valet waiting in front of restaurants and stores around Melrose Place, he says, when asked about his inspiration. These seeming unremarkable scenes of people who work here are in actuality significant representations of the labor that enables this city to operate. There is glamour and luxury in West Hollywood, he says, but there are people who are needed to maintain that luxury. It is at the intersection of glamour, luxury, and labor that Gomez sees beauty.

23 Artist pays homage to L.A. s unseen workers Ramiro Gomez s cardboard cutouts of nannies, gardeners, valets and housekeepers have appeared, in silent tribute, around the wealthy districts of the city. June 04, 2012 By Esmeralda Bermudez, Los Angeles Times For the last eight months, Gomez, an artist from West Hollywood, has made the invisible visible by installing life-size cardboard cutouts of nannies, gardeners, valet workers and housekeepers in Beverly Hills, the Hollywood Hills and other wealthy areas. His acrylic paintings appear unexpectedly around the Westside, like pop-ups from a children s book. Gomez puts them on display to raise provocative questions. We see the beautiful homes. The hedges are trimmed, the gardens are perfect, the children are cared for, Gomez said. We ve come to expect it to be this way. But who maintains all this? Who looks after it? And do we treat the workers with the dignity they deserve? Do we stop and notice them? Often, people zoom right by Gomez s cardboard creations. So he puts them in places that get plenty of foot traffic busy intersections, parking lots and parks. Recently, the 25-year-old tried his luck outside the Beverly Hills Hotel. He propped a housekeeper named Ana against a hedge near the entrance. She stood facing forward, clutching her purse with both hands. Within a day she had been removed by hotel staff. When President Obama came to town for a fundraiser at George Clooney s home in Studio City, Gomez installed four gardeners wielding a giant water hose a few blocks away. He was soon ordered to remove them by the Secret Service. Most pieces last a day or two if Gomez is lucky. Once, a valet parker he planted outside a lot near the Sunset Strip made it four days. Gomez writes his contact information on the back of each piece so people can tell him where the art ended up. So far, no one has reached out. At first it was tough to let go. He d stand by for a while to see people s reactions, then take the cutout down and lug it back home. He hauls the boxes home to the two-bedroom apartment he shares with his partner of six years, a film editor whose latest project is Beverly Hills Chihuahua Part 3.

24 Artist pays homage to L.A. s unseen workers (cont.) In a bedroom that doubles as a studio, his Juanitas, Adolfos and Candelarios quietly come to life. The idea for his project came a few years back, after he dropped out of art school. He needed money so he took a job as a nanny, caring for a 9-year-old and 8-month-old twins in the Hollywood Hills. He worked in a home with sweeping views of the hills along Laurel Canyon. His boss kept plenty of home decor magazines around, which later came in handy. Gomez got to know the workers in the neighborhood. He followed the same routine as the nannies: play time, lunch, nap, a trip to the park, then dinner and bath time. At the park in West Hollywood, the nannies were a tight-knit bunch. Aminata was from Haiti and Lulu from Britain. The rest were Central American and Mexican. They had worked in the hills for years, some for decades. When they saw Gomez, they didn t know what to make of him. A male nanny? A gay male nanny? But Gomez soon fell into their daily talk about favorite soap opera stars, their children s progress in school, their bus rides and their bosses. Some of the bosses were nice, some weren t. The same for the children. Notorious among them was a little girl from Beverly Hills who no one wanted to take care of. The girl s mother was a Hollywood bigwig, they said, known for her sharp tongue. She often chased away nannies after only a month. They talked constantly about trying to get better pay and hours. Soon the decor magazines that had entertained Gomez began to take on another meaning. He saw the posh living rooms, the fancy kitchens and immaculate gardens, but there was no mention of the workers who took care of them. They were invisible, Gomez said. As if the homes just magically cleaned themselves. So he began to insert the workers himself. He cut out the full-page ads of luxurious settings and with fine brush strokes painted in a housekeeper or gardener brown figures bent over lawn mowers, dust cloths and mops. He painted dozens of pages, transforming each into a thought-provoking statement. He wanted to take his message public, splash it on the walls like the muralist Diego Rivera or popular graffiti artist Banksy. But he didn t want problems with police. So he turned to cardboard cutouts. The Westside s pristine mansions and fancy cars provided a perfect backdrop.

25 Artist colors Hollywood Hills with figures of overlooked immigrant workers By Natalie Brunell, CNN Sat July 7, 2012 Los Angeles (CNN) -- His canvas: a cardboard box. His subject: the often-marginalized Latino immigrant worker of Los Angeles richest neighborhoods. For the past eight months, artist Ramiro Gomez has been creating figures from the discarded boxes of big-screen TVs, and he has been erecting the life-size depictions of nannies, housekeepers, gardeners and valets in the public spaces of Beverly Hills and Hollywood Hills. The lifelike recreations are designed to startle: Out of nowhere, passers-by happen upon the hand-painted cutouts of the immigrant workers placed in near in-your-face positions on sidewalks and parks. In a political climate where Latino workers face what some call racial profiling or draconian immigration laws such as in Arizona and Alabama, Gomez seeks to restore dignity and prominence to the honest laborer. The full-length portraitures, colored with acrylic paint, freeze a fleeting moment in the upscale neighborhoods: The Latino workers arrive by bus or foot into the enclaves of the rich and famous by morning and then disappear by night. But not with his cardboard characters -- who are stationed for hours in a public spot to garner as much attention as possible. Behind that lawn somebody was there spending their day in the hot sun working, Gomez, 25, told CNN. It was my way of giving them recognition because they re probably never going to get an award for the work that they re doing. Gomez, who lives in West Hollywood, was inspired to create the pieces while employed as a live-in nanny for a family in the Hollywood Hills, whose summits are better known as the home to the Hollywood sign. The pieces of art are his monuments to how the immigrants are not throw-away workers -- but rather integral contributors to the wellbeing of homes and families in America s elite communities. Capturing the work that goes into life on the Westside (of Los Angeles) is my way of making sure that my work is documented and their work is documented and this isn t forgotten, he said. Gomez developed his art during breaks from caring for 2-month-old twins. After he put them down for a nap, he returned to his room and drew pictures of counterpart workers such as Leticia, the fam-

26 Artist colors Hollywood Hills with figures of overlooked immigrant workers (cont.) ily s housekeeper, who reminded him of his family in San Bernardino, California. When I left to pursue my own dreams, to come out here to L.A. to pursue art, it s one of those things where the reality is really different, Gomez said. Growing up, he said he never imagined himself living in the Hollywood Hills. His mother is a custodian at a public elementary school in San Bernardino and his father works two jobs: a janitor by day and a truck driver for Costco from midnight to noon. His parents are Mexican immigrants who labored long days to provide a decent life for the family, Gomez said. People will pass by in their cars and there s people that take pictures, he said. He leaves his creations in the public domain for anyone to take. He assumes his hand-painted, cardboard figures found a home -- maybe in the same residences where the real-life workers spend their days. But unlike the twins in his care, he didn t grow up with myriad colorful toys and gadgets -- or even his own room. They worked hard to leave their country and come here for the opportunities that I m so lucky to have, Gomez said of his parents. He attributes his work ethic to them, and he draws inspiration from his heritage. Domestic workers often spend more time with their employers than they do with their own families, and the people for whom Gomez worked became like a surrogate family, he said. I treat them as if they were my kids because in this line of duty, you can t come in and say, all right, you re a job, Gomez said. I m here -- again -- not to work, but to take care of their kids. So far the cardboard figures have been well-received, according to Gomez.

27 Ramiro Gomez Jr. is working fast enough to draw the least amount of attention, but slowly enough to make every detail stand out. He describes the rush he gets as therapeutic. Gomez has created inserts on a human-size piece of cardboard, and with a pair of pliers he begins to lace wire to it. He then grabs tools to prop the cardboard piece up for display. He chooses his spot at a towering shrubbery fence at a busy intersection in Bel Air, Calif., a neighborhood known for its luxury and Hollywood star dwellers. What stands before him, and the public, is an acrylic-painted cardboard cutout of an immigrant worker with a Star Maps Here sign. Artist Works To Keep Immigrants In The Picture by BRIAN DE LOS SANTOS February 14, 2013 The artist says he is documenting the undocumented by placing his art in affluent communities, places where these workers are often invisible. These cardboard people have gone up on famous streets and in residential areas and public parks. This week the same week when immigration reform was mentioned in the president s State of the Union address and the GOP response given by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio the 26-year-old artist took his statement to the nation s capital. It still hasn t hit me that I m in Washington, Gomez says, and it probably won t until I get home and reflect. From White Picket Fences To The White House The Los Angeles-based artist was invited to lead an art workshop at the United Workers Congress, which took place in Washington, D.C., this week. Some 250 immigrant workers and labor-rights organizers came together to rally for an inclusive path to citizenship for domestic workers and day laborers. Xiomara Corpeño, director of organizing at the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, says one of the main issues in immigration is that workers often face discrimination from employers and even family members and friends. When unauthorized immigrants face problems at work, it s likely they ll stay silent. A National Domestic Workers Alliance survey finds 85 percent don t complain so their immigration status won t be used against them. Sometimes people leave their self-esteem at the border, Corpeño says. It s a problem caused by the negative rhetoric around the immigration issue, she adds. And the perception of these workers is what Gomez s work targets. Think about this: When someone comes to work for you, that person has humanity, he says. On Tuesday, the artist tried to show that humanity in front of the White House by placing a cutout of a family of four on the outside of the fence

28 Artist Works To Keep Immigrants In The Picture (cont.) looking in. He had to remove it. The next day, he took a cardboard creation of strawberry pickers to the Capitol s East Lawn. They sat there, briefly, until a police officer asked for a permit. Gomez reluctantly took them down. But despite his persistence, Gomez says he is not an activist. He bases his art on his life, his family and his work as a nanny. His own experiences as a domestic worker. I m doing everything based on my life, he says. I cannot present what is not there. A Living Room Ad And An Idea But before the Capitol and the White House, there were magazine ads. Gomez grew up San Bernardino, Calif., and moved to Hollywood in 2009 after dropping out of the California Institute of the Arts and his grandmother died. Trying to move past the low moment and with limited options, he picked up a baby-sitting gig. That s when it all started. After a frustrating day at work, he took out his emotions on a living room magazine ad, altering it by making its walls bleed with paint. He says it eased his tension. It was the first of several such pieces. Soon he turned from customizing ads and shifted to painting housekeepers without facial details a way to showcase impersonal relationships between employers and the employees who were performing chores in their large, extravagant homes. To add a human element, Gomez always gives his pieces a name. They re usually titled after a composite of characters he s come across whether it s a family member or a household worker he s befriended while baby-sitting and pseudonyms he makes up, such as Guillermina and Genaro. Reaction And Removal Eva Aucapina liked Gomez s project when she viewed it at the workers event this week. She s an Ecuadorean domestic worker who has been taking care of children and cleaning homes in Los Angeles for about 15 years. The art is great, she says in Spanish. It means people are noticing that we re doing an honorable job. Ramiro... is targeting a situation that is concerning him and giving it a new look at that stereotype and a new voice, says Gronk, an L.A.- based Chicano artist and former member of the art collective Asco. But some say Gomez is reinforcing the stereotypes he s trying to erase with paint. Last summer, he was confronted by an immigrant worker. It was the first time Gomez had experienced opposition from the kinds of people he was painting. The man, who was selling celebrity home maps on a shaded corner, told Gomez he was being discriminatory by portraying him with dark skin and was scaring business away. The worker warned if he didn t take the painting down, he would do it himself. Gomez tried to explain the purpose of the project, but the man didn t see or care about his point of view. The response shook the artist and he removed the cardboard piece, which depicted a maps vendor. I m not taking it as a sense of a personal attack, he said at the time. When I encounter these moments, the first thing that comes to mind is: learn.

29 Ramiro Gomez (b. 1986, U.S.) West Hollywood, CA. Solo Exhibitions 2013 Charlie James Gallery 2013 Luxury, Interrupted, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, CA 2012 Rose Gardens, Pehrspace, CA Group Exhibitions 2013 T.J. Martell Foundation Artworks for the Cure Barker Hangar, CA 2013 AFL-CIO National Convention, CA 2013 Divested Interest, CSUF Grand Central Art Center, CA 2012 Meet Me At Metro, East LA Civic Center, CA 2012 Install: WEHO, West Hollywood Library, CA 2012 L.A. Road Concert: Mulholland Dr., CA 2012 Global Cardboard Challenge, Imagination Foundation, CA 2011 L.A. Road Concert: Sunset Blvd., CA 2011 Group show, Bang Gallery. CA Bibliography David Montgomery Protest artist s cardboard cutouts draw attention to immigration issue The Washington Post, February 14th, 2013 (also available online) Brian De Los Santos Artist works to keep Immigrants in the picture NPR, February 14th, 2013 (online) Esmeralda Bermudez Artist pays homage to L.A. s unseen workers Los Angeles Times, cover, June 4th 2012 (also available online) Sarah Goodyear An L.A. Artist makes Immigrant workers impossible to ignore The Atlantic Cities, July 12th, 2012 (online) Natalie Brunell Artist colors Hollywood Hills with figures of overlooked Immigrant workers CNN July 7th, 2012 (online) Andrea Long-Chavez Public Artist affirms the Human Statement of Hollywood Hills gardeners, housekeepers The Huffington Post February 29th, 2012 (online) Teaching 2013 Guest Lecturer, AFL-CIO National Convention, Los Angeles Convention Center, CA 2013 Guest Lecturer, UCLA 2013 Guest Lecturer. Stanford University 2013 Guest Lecturer, Aqui se respira lucha UC San Diego 2012 Guest Lecturer, Race Matters Series Quiet is the new loud UC Santa Barbara 2012 Guest Lecturer. Sing the real UC Santa Barbara

30 Residencies Mural Awards 2013 City of West Hollywood Park 2013 Artist-in-residence CSUF Grand Central Art Center, CA 2013 The Caretakers/Los Cuidadores City of West Hollywood Park, CA Artists to Watch, Artvoices Magazine Green Leaders in Art, Poder Magazine