Mexican Heritage Plaza

Dates

June 9 through September 29, 2007

Location

Mexican Heritage Plaza La Galería / San Jose Museum of Art

Tickets

The exhibition at The Plaza is open to the public with free admission. La Galería is open Monday through Saturday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Weekends and after-hours by appointment.
For more information call 408.928.5524

The exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art is open Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 5pm
Closed Monday and all Monday holidays.
Closed Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Day.
Admission is $8.00 for adults, $5.00 for students and seniors, and a $2.00 is given to holders of a San José Library Card. Children under 6 are free, as are SJMA members.
The San José Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street, San Jose, CA 95113 in the heart of downtown San Jose, at the corner of Market and San Fernando streets. Phone: 408-271-6840 (24-hour Recorded Info: 408-294-2787) or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org

Mexican Heritage Plaza (MHP) and the San Jose Museum of Art (SJMA) have partnered to bring a foremost Mexican self-taught artist back to his Northern California home.

“The Plaza is proud to present, in partnership with the San Jose Museum of Art the exhibition of Martin Ramirez,” said Marcela Davison Aviles, President and CEO of Mexican Heritage Plaza. Martín Ramírez will travel to his roots here in California directly from the American Folk Art Museum in New York. ”

Martín Ramírez is considered one of the foremost masters of the 20th century. Opening June 9, the Plaza and SJMA will present the definitive exhibition of the work of this incredible artist, bringing together new information about his life and work.

The exhibition will be on display at both venues: It will feature a presentation of Ramírez’s art at SJMA, and a presentation of rare photographs and artifacts that tell the story behind his art – the story of his “road less traveled” – at the Plaza’s galería. This one-of-a-kind exhibition will span time and territory – that of Ramírez’s past and that of the present, as it seeks to create a cultural bridge linking two of San Jose’s premier cultural institutions with a shared presentation of this master of illustration.

The Plaza’s exhibition will reveal, for the first time, new biographical information. It will be curated by Victor Espinosa, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology from Northwestern University who has spent his career studying Ramírez’ work, and who is the author of the opening essay of the exhibition’s catalogue.

In conjunction with Martín Ramírez, the Plaza and The Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley will present a series of lectures, including one with Victor Espinosa and another with Brooke Anderson, curator of the show at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. The lectures will be held at the Mexican Heritage Plaza.

“Martín Ramírez is a unique opportunity to increase public and critical awareness of this important artist and his deeply touching story,” said Daniel T. Keegan, Oshman Executive Director of the San Jose Museum of Art. “The San Jose Museum of Art is an active partner in the wider cultural community of the Bay Area and is proud to partner with the Mexican Heritage Plaza to provide a national forum and venue for vital cultural exchange.”

At the SJMA the Ramírez pieces will feature approximately 97 works on paper and will be accompanied y a full-color catalogue.

The exhibition reflects not only Ramírez's Latino roots and the Mexican cultural millieu in which he grew up, but also his intuitive eye and the authenticity of his vision. Ramírez saw the world afresh in his graphic repertoire of Mexican and American cultural images.

Born in Mexico, Ramírez migrated to the US in search of a better life for himself and his family. However, after a few years he was found on the streets in northern California and institutionalized at DeWitt State Hospital in Auburn where he created nearly 300 complex artworks during the last 15 years of his life. Ramírez's drawings and collages are like visual diaries of his life. Their expressive power and visual clarity fuse Mexican motifs with mid-century American popular culture. The exhibition is dedicated to his family that has only recently been located.