MEL RAMOS
Exhibition dates: September 17 - November 30, 2016
Galerie Gmurzynska Zug is pleased to announce a career-spanning exhibition of Mel Ramos’ work, on the occasion of Zuger Kunstnacht 2016. The 81 year old artist received his first important recognition in the early 1960s. In 1963 he participated in the seminal “Pop Goes the Easel” exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston. In the exhibition “6 more” which complemented the show “Six painters and the Object,” curated by Lawrence Alloway. In these shows, Alloway tried to correct the tendency of “Pop Art” being applied too loosely. Ever since then Ramos established himself as one of the main representatives of pop art besides Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rosenquist.
The current show at Galerie Gmurzynska in Zug emphasises the diversity of Ramos’ work, which encompasses various media like resin, bronze and steel sculptures, oil paintings, works on paper and lithographs. Moreover, the exhibit echoes the importance of semiotics used by Ramos in deconstructing the nature of advertising. Here the fetishized objects are exposed as catalysts for brands, products and the depicted women themselves. The signature style of Ramos has been known for over fifty years, dialectically presenting the daringly beautiful and the intellectually interrogative.
Mel Ramos has participated in more than 120 group shows since 1959. In 1967 the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco dedicated a solo show to the artist. His retrospective at Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld followed in 1975 upon which he exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art New York, Museum Ludwig Cologne and Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid among others. In 2011 the Albertina in Vienna held a major retrospective of the artist titled Mel Ramos: Girls, Candies & Comics.