Here, For A Moment

PastExhibition

Oct 31

Jay Lynn Gomez
Here, For a Moment

NOVEMBER 16, 2019 - JANUARY 4, 2020

SHOW CATALOG (PDF)
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)

Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present Here, For a Moment, the fourth solo exhibition with the gallery by Los Angeles-based artist Ramiro Gomez, opening Saturday, November 16th and running through January 4, 2020.

In this forthcoming show Gomez is responding as always to his lived environment, but also to the tenor of the times and the weight of contemporary American disharmony. Processing recent years of deteriorating political climate, witnessing purges of working people based on immigration status, and experiencing episodes of personal loss have combined to yield a body of work grounded in ephemerality, which manifests in the show’s chosen narratives and use of materials. Gomez continues to use his photography practice as source images for his paintings, capturing scenes of working life in and around Los Angeles. Inspired as always by service workers, laborers, and discarded materials from the streets of LA, Gomez works across a wide range of media from cardboard to distressed canvas, trash bags, garden hose, found tarps and immersive mixed media installation. The show is an homage to the people who keep working amidst the increasing pressures of contemporary American life, though not explicitly an act of veneration. The show seeks to inhabit the lives of its subjects, particularly their moments of respite, reflection, and fantasy.

Ramiro Gomez was born in 1986 in San Bernardino, California to undocumented Mexican immigrant parents who have since become US citizens. His work has been exhibited at LACMA, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Denver Art Museum, the MFA Houston, the Blanton Museum of Art, and many other institutions. In 2016 Ramiro Gomez was the subject of a book by award- winning author Lawrence Weschler titled Domestic Scenes – The Art of Ramiro Gomez, published by Abrams Publishing. Gomez’s work has been reviewed and discussed in the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, CNN, National Public Radio, CARLA, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, the LA Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar, Hyperallergic, and others. His work is in the collections of LACMA, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Denver Art Museum, the MCA San Diego, the Blanton Museum of Art, the Crocker Art Museum, the Nerman Museum, the Museum of Latin American Art among many others. Gomez is represented by Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles and PPOW Gallery in New York. Gomez lives and works in West Hollywood, California.