Sergio Ramon García

Cuban born, American artist Sergio Ramon Garcia has been in Miami since 1961.
Essentially a self-taught American artist, he embraced painting as a means of expression, exploring his personal identity, both past and present within the context of the ever present human condition. His work results from a profound and vigorous investigation of the psychological, social and emotional turmoil of life,the human condition.

Garcia’s work reminds the viewer of the basic “aloneness” of man, and the elements that affect it. These matters are best expressed through the artist’s use of color, as well as by the intrusion of circles, lines and blacks, which serve to enhance the abstract and expressionistic quality of his work. Often, sketched like figures emerge from the raw canvases simply hung with nails, torn & stitched to convey symbolically the lifetime of damages to human awareness that leave visible scars.

In these visual chronicles of himself, he auto psychoanalyzes and simultaneously develops his own therapy: a pictorial high-voltage discharge (mixtures of textures, transparencies, dripping, gesturism, etc). The nearly featureless faces, barely sketched, a sort of initial contour without a mark, an insignia, the logo that identifies an act of possession, a stamp that at times he reaffirms by imprinting his own hand.

Garcia has had solo shows at The Davis Mini Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain. The Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Highland Museum of the Arts, Sebring, FL, Contemporary Art Lab, Philadelphia, P.A., F.I.U. Greene Gallery, Miami, FL. State Capitol, Florida Arts Council, Division of Cultural Affairs, Tallahassee, FL, Art Shangai,Shangai, China, MIA Art Fair, Miami, FL, Art Naples Fair, Naples, FL, The Lowe Gallery, Naomi Silva Gallery, Atlanta, Ga, Aldo Castillo Gallery Chicago, IL, Kavachnina Contemporary, Miami, FL.
He has participated in group shows like Travelling exhibition ‘The Kingdom of this World”, Pensacola Museum of Ar, Pensacola,FL Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, New York University, N.Y. The Halpert Biennial 95, Boone, Nc, Travelling exhibition,”Homage to María Zambrano” at the Museum of the Americas, Madrid, Spain, Espace Nouveau Vallon, Geneve, Switzerland. “Cafe”-The Journey of Cuban Artists & Writers, Temple University, Rome, Italy & Haggerty Museum, Milwaukee, MI, “Artist Postcards, from Picasso to the Present“ 4th Beijing Art Biennale, Centro Italiano per le Arti e la Cultura, ¡Miami Effetá!, Laboratorio Evolutivo de Arte Contemporáneo, Alternative Space / Trienal Internacional del Caribe, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Palacio de Bellas Artes, “Giants in the City”, Dominican Republic, 53rd Venice Biennale, Centro Italiano per le Arti e la Cultura, Highland Museum of the Arts, Sebring, FL, “Global Carribean” V), City of, Miami, Little Haiti Cultural Center, Miami, (official Art Basel Miami program), Miami, FL, Penticton Art Gallery Museum, Penticton, Canada, 2017. Travelling exhibition, “The Kingdom of this World”, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL, N.Y.University’s The King Juan Carlos Center, N.Y, City of Miami Little Haiti Cultural Center.

His work is represented in museums, private and corporate collections throughout the U.S. & abroad such as the Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL Lowe Art Museum & The Frost Museum in Miami, FL, Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach. CA, Museum of the Americas, Madrid, Spain, Museum of Art & Design, Miami, FL, and “Lehigh Museum, Bethlehem, PA, Penticton Art Museum, Penticton, Canada, Davis Lisboa Mini-Museum of Cont.Art , Barcelona, Spain .Contemporary Art Lab, Philadelphia, PA among others.

Garcia has been the subject of numerous major publications such as “Latin American Artists Signature & Monograms”Colonial Era to 1996.  National Museum of American History, Washington D.C. 1997; Chicago Art Dealers Association. “Absolute Vision”, Front Cover. Sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2000; “Recent Acquisitions of Cuban Art”, Lowe Museum of Art, Miami, Fl. 2003; “Homage to María Zambrano, Museo María Zambrano, Museum of the Americas, Madrid, Spain, 2005; “Cuban Artists Across the Diaspora” – Setting the Tent Against the House, By Andrea O’Reilly Herrera, University of Texas Press. Austin, TX. 20011. His work has been extensively reviewed in newspapers, art magazines and publications around the world.

ARTIST STATEMENT

WHILE ELICITING EXCITEMENT AND PASSION, I SEEK TO DISTURB AND AWAKEN THE ANIMAL PART WITHIN, AS PART OF THE HUMAN CONDITION. I DO NOT SEE MYSELF AS A PAINTER BUT AS AN EXPLORER IN THE QUEST OF THE “INNER”.

MY WORK RESULTS IN PROFOUND INTROSPECTION AND VIGOROUS INVESTIGATION OF PERSONAL DEMONS AND EXPRESSIONIST REALITIES. THIS LEADS TO PERSONAL ANGUISH AND LOVE, NOT ONLY OF THE ACT OF LIVING, BUT OF LIFE AS IT IS. ‘ CHAOTIC STRUCTURE OR STRUCTURED CHAOS“ ? THAT IS MY QUESTION !

MY JOURNEYS ARE TAPPED THROUGH THE PERSISTENCE OF DREAMS, MEMORY, DE-CODING PAST LIVES, ANCESTRAL ARCHETYPES , AFRICANISM, SEX, PASSION, FEARS, OBSESSION, SUPER HEROES, IGGY POP, MAMBO, CHA-CHA-CHA, CARL JUNG, PSYCHOLOGY, DNA, ANTHROPOLOGY, WARRIORS, WEAPONS, MAGIC, PERCUSSION, EDGAR ALLAN POE.

I SOMETIMES SLASH THE CANVAS AND PENETRATE IT, THEN SUTURE THEM, THEREBY EXPRESSING TORMENT. BUT THE NARRATIVE COMPONENT HAS BEEN SUPPRESSED, AND THUS THE STRUCTURE STRENGTHENS ITSELF AS IMAGES FIND THEMSELVES. I CONFRONT SIGNIFICANT PERSONAL ISSUES AGAIN AND AGAIN.

IN MY WORK, REPRESENTATION IS NEITHER SIMLIFICTION NOR ABSTRACTION, IT SIMPLY ORGANIZES THINGS LIKE NOTES ON MUSICAL SLATE.

THIS BODY OF WORK BRINGS INTO FOCUS MY INSISTENCE UPON A FIGURATIVE PRESENCE THAT CAN ALLOW ME TO MY INNOCENCE THROUGH SWEET VICIOUS TENDERNESS. THE FIGURES ARE LIKE CREATURES CONDEMEND TO SELF-DESTRUCTION.

‘MY WORK COMES TO LIFE NEITHER TO BE SELF SATISFACTORY NOR TO PLAY A ROLE IN THE WORLD OF THE ARTS, I SIMPLY PLUNGE INTO THE UNKNOWN ‘…