Rodrigo Ramírez Explores the Anxiety of Existing in ‘While Being Plastic Membranes’

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Recently successful from his fully booked show at Zona Maco in February, Rodrigo Ramírez – an artist hailing from Mexico City – is now preparing for his solo U.S. debut at Swivel Gallery in New York. Entitled “While Being Plastic Membranes“, this exhibition delves into the intense conflict between body and mind, challenging the limits of embodiment through a collection of surreal paintings and sculptures that evoke dreams.

Exploring the concept of “cultural assimilation”, Ramírez draws inspiration from Baroque religious imagery like Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and Oswald de Andrade’s Manifesto Antropófago. His artworks depict figures that swallow and transform, reflecting societies’ absorption and reshaping of subcultures. These images embody a state of continuous evolution or change.

Ramírez’s figures, tinted in flesh hues, seem to radiate an unsettling aura, as they bend, distort, and merge into each other, trapped in an infinite transformation. His artworks, both intellectual and cinematic, induce a feeling of dizziness through the clever use of light and shadow. Furthermore, his sculptures extend this process of metamorphosis into a three-dimensional world. By capturing anatomical terrains, concerns about aging, and perspectives on self-image, these artworks explore the dance between pain and pleasure. The gallery notes suggest that “we are almost forced to engage with this interplay” due to its inherent nature.

While Being Plastic will be on view in New York from March 29 through April 26.

Swivel Gallery
555 Greenwich Street,
New York, NY 10014

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2025-03-25 00:55