Anderson Ranch Welcomes Latino Artist Ricky Armendariz to Campus
Artists Richard Armendariz and Andrés Ferrandis find unlikely common ground in ‘Manos’, San Antonio, Current, by Brian Rindfuss
Admitted: USA Exhibition Pairs Immigrant Artists With More Established Counterparts in SA
Stories Retold in the Wood Carving of RickyArmendariz
Ruiz-Healy Art opens exhibition of works by Ricky Armendariz
International Print Center New York/Multilayered : New Prints 2018/Summer Selected by Juan Sanchez
Ricky Armendariz at Ruiz-Healy, by Neil Fauerso
A peek inside an SA artists live work home
Epic Fort The DoSeum opens its first artist-in-residence exhibition
UTSA professor becomes first artist-in-residence at The DoSeum
DoSeum gets a kids’ art tent in new installation
Artist On Artist: Gary Sweeney Probes Ricky Armendariz On Work & Mentoring
San Antonio Magazine, "Inspired By Berlin San Antonio artists step into Berlin arts and culture through residency program", by Dan Goddard
Tal Palo Tal Astilla: Three artist explore cultural boundaries
Tal Palo Tal Astilla
San Antonio Artist Berlin Bound
"Artist seeks humor in border craziness" Steve Bennett,San Antonio Express News
UTSA professor's works are hybrids of 2 culture
Tu Crazy Baby:Ricky Armendariz at Art League Houston
Ricky Armendariz Sets Art League Ablaze With His Carved Paintings
Ricky Armendariz-Blown off course guided by spirits
Blown off course guided by spirits exhibition
Artshopsa - Sporadic Art Shows at Non-Art Spaces
Arturo Almeida interview with Ricky Armendariz
Vimeo Interview with Ricky Armendariz
Ricky Armendariz funeral for an owl.
George Zupp and I had a show at Sound Art in Laredo,TX. This is what happened on our trip there.
"The Best of 2010"
Elda Silva & Steve Bennett, San Antonio Express-News,December 26 2010, “Yah Me Voy a Therapy,” REM Gallery: The title translates as “Now I’ll go to therapy,” and it’s a play on the macho attitudes that have got us in such a fine mess in so many hot spots around the world. The satisfying exhibition of wood-panel, word-inflected paintings (incorporating dichos and song lyrics) was El Paso native Ricky Armendariz’s lively take on the daily tragedy of violence on the Texas/Mexico border. “One foot in, one foot out,” Armendariz says. “Everything I do has a background on the border.”
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/visual_arts/article/The-Best-of-2010-151-Visual-Arts-919787.php#ixzz1Aqddy6ds
Texas artists stretch boundaries in UTSA biennial exhibit
By Steve Bennett - Express-News
Web Posted: 07/18/2010 12:00 CDTEXCERPT
Here and now, San Antonio artist Ricky Armendariz's image of a classic car on a green plywood surface is pumping on several cylinders. Within the body of the outlined automobile he has carved an image with Aztec historical references, while within the billowing exhaust, the carved text of the title pulls it all together and can't help but make you smile: "Ya me voy a therapy," which translates roughly as "Now, I'll go to therapy."
A DIFFERENT 'VISTA'
BY JENNIFER HERRERA
7/3/2008As I entered C-Art Studio, I was greeted by Richard Martinez, who was downing a cold brew on the porch. Martinez and Ricky Armendariz's show Hybrid Vistas: Two South Texas Painters, officially kicked off my CAM reviewing season last night.
Armendariz and Martinez, both professors at the University of Texas at San Antonio, joined forces once again (they previously teamed up in 2004 for a show at Ken Little's Rrose Amarillo Gallery) to show their work. As the shows description states, the nine pieces on view showcase their "interest in bringing together varied and disparate visual influences to create hybrid statements in their richly worked paintings."
The fusion of styles is evident once you step foot in the studio. Armendariz draws patrons in with his acrylic on carved birch plywood work "Blown off course, guided by spirits ..." a large piece that captured my attention from the get-go.
Martinez's simplistic graphite on duralar (polyester film) works had me examining the method of each piece, especially "Pacific Dawn," an oil-on-linen piece that presents a different perspective from each angle, due to the lighting. (I recommend taking the piece in from the left side where it can be seen to its full effect without reflecting a gaudy glare.)
Armendariz (who we hailed in our Best of 2006 as Best Up and Coming artist) unites Western history with a Chicano twist; His richly hued landscapes act as the backdrop for his carved plywood masterpieces, while he occasionally tosses in a short phrase (written by Armendariz and influenced by Dwight Yoakum, Johnny Cash, Hank William and Freddie Fender, to name a few)
Martinez borrows from Modernists with his straightforward works that elicits feelings of nostalgia, with graphite dust scattered around the artwork giving it a not-so-clean finish.
The two-person show successfully brings together two different artists who complement each other. From simple to intricate, Martinez and Armendariz display their rich artistry and their ability to borrow from great art movements.
Hybrid Vistas: Two South Texas Painters
By appt.
C-Art Studio
1426 W. Craig Pl.
(210) 380-6508ARTE: LA RAZA Y LA RANA (SANA)
CURABLOGI'm coming to count on UTSA Satellite Space as a reliable source for terrific, challenging, brainy art-looking experiences. (Way brainier than, say, the phrase "art-looking experiences.")
Recent shows like "Figure and Illusion," "Media Lab," "Welcome to the Monkey House, " and the current exhibition, "Sana Sana Colita de Rana" have impressed me with their diversity, depth and humor. If this space in the back-alley of Blue Star isn't on your First Friday radar, it should be. And while I haven't cottoned to every individual piece of art I've seen there, I always stagger out of there, towards the marimba-sounding windchimes on somebody's nearby condo-porch, lost in a bewildered, meditative haze.
"Sana Sana Colita de Rana" translates roughly( and weirdly) as "heal, heal, little tail of the frog," and it's the first line in a Spanish kids' rhyme:
SpanishEnglish
Sana, sana,
Heal, heal,
colita de rana,
little tail of the frog,
Si no sanas hoy,
If you don't heal today,
sanarás mañana.
you'll heal tomorrow.
It's the Spanish language "kiss the boo-boo and make it better" song, something crooned by parents as they band-aid a skinned knee. The UTSA show is subtitled "Artists Influenced by La Cultura," and curator Ricky Armendariz has gathered edgy, genre-bending works by five painters, a video artist, a creatrix of exquisite modern papel picado, and a mixed-media/fabric magician, all their efforts steeped in the searing, high-octane spirits of South Texas.Issues addressed include la Frontera, the re-Latinization of our country (and bodies), ethnocentric taboos, xenophobic fears (including internalized ones), and the daily rigors of work. Man, it's hard to write about the socio-culture of an art show without making it sound tired and academic, and this show isn't either of those things--it jumps out at you.
The show's tone is often comic-melancholic, as in Ian Tyler Ibarra's 2005 video loop "Tripa Love," in which he explores the 2004 Bexar County Mad Cow ban on tripas. The vid includes interviews with local health officials, food-cart vendors, and a lonely performative walk through Fiesta of a sad hombre (the artist himself, I'm guessing?) wearing a placard which reads WILL WORK FOR TRIPAS. The videography is often offhandedly beautiful (and the music is fantastic, and I'm dying to know what it was. Anybody know?)
And who knew the tripe wars could be so poignant? It's a surprisingly loaded topic. As one concerned vendor points out, the Mad Cow disease would effect all beefy parts--why were tripas singled out for castigation? ...I think we know why.
(Mr. Ibarra probably already knows this, but: tripas are legal again. I called the taqueria known for its delicious tacos de tripa, Piedras Negras de Noche at 1312 Laredo St., (210) 227-7777, to make sure.)
Meanwhile Kathleen Trenchard's papel picado works are both strong graphically strong and tender, celebrating in an almost photojournalistic way the details of beauty salons, bootmakers, dim sum, and driving a pickup, and evince both deep respect and whimsy without being kitschy or sentimental.
Donna Huanca's mixed-media fabric pieces embrace collage and mythology in surprising ways, whether in depicting idea-haunted border landscape in "Ciudad Juarez," or depicting a mindblowingly detailed, fascinatingly post-racial MesoAmerican goddess in "Pachamama."
Haydee Victoria Suescum's group of 16 small-scale paintings are unapologetically pretty, simple, and feminine, which doesn't diminish their power or appeal. Objects such as steam irons and ironing boards, stand fans and portraits of men and women, have both an iconic and an intimate feeling.
I have a major, embarrassing cucaracha phobia, which was wickedly tweaked by Francisco Delgado's clever, impassioned painting "Los Dos Panchas: Forgive Me Richard Florida For I Know Not What I Do." He depicts two enormous, Kafka-esque insects tenderly holding, um, hands against a threatening sky, the whole composition starkly reminiscent of Kahlo's "Las Dos Fridas." Both drink from coconuts and one wears a Barbie head. Richard Florida, btw, is the author of The Rise of the Creative Class. A banner hovers above the couple, reading in semi-graffiti wildstyle, "CARAMEL MACCHIATO." Confused yet? Despite the sheer number of allusions and variables here, the painting behaves like a cohesive, highly trenchant visual essay about the buying and selling of culture and identity.
Los Supersonicos (aka Francisco Zamora and Carlos Frésquez, whose sculptural, mixed media on wood panel pieces are also part of the show ) are responsible for two trippy-ass, deeply disturbing Acrylic paintings on canvas in the back room. "Hay Infeccion aka Eye Infection," depicts Latino archetypes--the boxer, the indio dancer, and a weeping eye. And "Doble Jesus aka YosoY," is a bewildering visual palindrome of, well, double Jesuses.
It's vastly entertaining, humorously disquieting show. I'm pretty sure I came out of the UTSA Satellite Space googly-eyed pero bien sanada.
TEXAS ARTISTS STRETCH BOUNDARIES IN UTSA BIENNIAL EXHIBIT
By Steve Bennett - Express-News
07/18/2010EXCERPT
Here and now, San Antonio artist Ricky Armendariz's image of a classic car on a green plywood surface is pumping on several cylinders. Within the body of the outlined automobile he has carved an image with Aztec historical references, while within the billowing exhaust, the carved text of the title pulls it all together and can't help but make you smile: "Ya me voy a therapy," which translates roughly as "Now, I'll go to therapy."
CULTURE - THE FACE IN THE MIRROR IS MESTIZO
By Elaine WolffA two-day roundtable takes a big eraser to identity lines
EXCERPT
“El Paso is not really Texas, and Juárez is not really Mexico,” says painter and UTSA professor Ricky Armendariz. “Things go there and they become something else.”
Armendariz’ one-man show at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, “Confessions of a Singin’ Vaquero,” explores the Southwestern landscape as a repository and wellspring of meaning and identity. The artist’s dramatic large-scale sunsets and sunrises are covered with dichos and lyric fragments, which Armendariz says he employs in part to “lift up” the humble landscape genre.
But the images can also be read as the promised limitlessness of the once border-free West hemmed in by cultural expectations (or lack thereof) — an illustration of how confines imposed by others, by racism and classism, can be transmuted into self-imprisoning points of pride. But Armendariz’ dichos are in Spanglish, the evolving language of mestizo Tejas. “By combining the two languages,” he says, “it has more meaning.” And more possibilities.
Armendariz says he arrived at this point in his work by returning to the observational methods that he learned in art school. Several years ago, living in Boulder, Colorado, he was making work that dealt with “brown and white.” But “after 9-11, those issues seemed exhausted,” he says, touching on Santos and Madrid’s desire to transcend reductive notions of identity.
A native of El Paso, Armendariz says his life is mestizo. “Freddie Fender was my hero growing up. He was doing it. He was singing in English and Spanish, making sense of my life.”
SPANGLISH: RICKY ARMENDARIZ, RAE CULBERT, BETO GONZALEZ, DANIEL GUERRERO, ANN-MICHELE MORALES, CRUZ ORTIZ, LUZ MARIA SANCHEZ, GARY SWEENEY
San Antonio, TX
October 26, 2005–January 22, 2006About the artists and exhibition
Borders worldwide carve out adjacent regions of flux. While governmental currencies and economies may remain distinct, with each crossing the fluid realms of language and culture blend. The resulting hybrid zones of neither/nor reflect hierarchical complexities of colonial histories and create uniquely rich landscapes that unconsciously and deliberately pull from both sides.
The group exhibition Spanglish offers distinct contemporary perspectives on the hybridity of South Texas. Recent pieces by San Antonians describe the region as Mexican and American, not a reduction of either. Included works offer reflexive responses to the everyday, political gestures toward a troubling history, and the realities of the language and culture of Spanglish.
EXCERPT
Ricky Armendariz’s paintings update Western art history with Chicano heritage. Lonesome highways are the only kind I seem to travel… features an expansive sky referencing traditional landscape painting bordered by varnished wood panel alluding to American kitsch. Additionally, each painting in this series is routed with dicho/truism and indigenous Mexican characters and symbols, an invasive branding gesture which further re-adjusts a hierarchy that habitually marginalizes Americana and Chicanismo. In these imposing images of hybridity, the cultural blending of South Texas is expressed as necessity, choice, and above all, reality.
STC PECAN CAMPUS LIBRARY EXHIBIT INVESTIGATES TRANSCENDENCE
Posted on 28 October 2009South Texas College’s Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery is proud to present “Investigating Transcendence” featuring paintings by Ricky Armendariz and Wendy Hauschildt. The exhibit opens Thursday, Nov. 5 and will be on view through Dec. 11, 2009. On Thursday, Nov. 5 art talks will be held at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at STC’s Pecan Campus Library Rainbow Room, Bldg F. A reception will take place that evening from 6 to 8 p.m. at STC’s Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery, Bldg. F. located at 3201 W. Pecan Blvd. in McAllen. Admission is free and open to the public.
Ricky Armendariz is a professor of art at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He was born and raised in El Paso, TX and the romantic Southwest landscape of the region is revealed through many of his paintings. Armendariz’s works are mainly created using oil and acrylic and polycrylic paint with carved birch plywood.
In regards to his art, Armendariz says, “my work utilizes imagery referencing the nostalgia of the American Southwest, cultural maxims, and iconography influenced by and specific to my cultural heritage. I am influenced by the mystique of the border region, including mesas and big skies reaching as far as the eye can see. The aesthetic combination of Western imagery coupled with contemporary and art historical influences are a foundation for my work. My goal is to elevate the perception of landscape-genre painting, and contribute to its long standing history in art.”
Wendy Hauschild’s “Late Thoughts,” an oil on canvas.
Wendy Hauschildt, originally from Wisconsin, is a graphic designer and owner of Blue Starfish Designs in Port Isabel, TX, where she works on graphic arts and Web development. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Texas at San Antonio. For Hauschildt, painting is a very therapeutic and meditative experience driven by her need to understand life’s lessons through the process of creation.
Her work is inspired by the human relationship with natural elements and everyday objects. Hauschildt’s latest paintings examine life’s continuous cycle of beginnings and endings through a perspective that is both personal and yet ubiquitous.
In regards to her artwork Hauschildt says, “the work is a contemplation of mortality and an attempt to embrace continuing change as a healthy and necessary process.”
“Ricky Armendariz uses both the written word and symbolism as a specialized design element in his works,” said David Freeman, curator for STC’s Library Art Gallery Program. “His hard edged visual components -these two distinct yet integral parts of his paintings – images and symbols reflect the cultural contemporary and traditional dichotomies and aesthetics of his present and past heritage. Armendariz provides his audience with a view of a social mechanism operating in our cultural landscape today. He depicts cultural proverbs, prosaic blends of consumerism, romanticism and magnificent cinema graphic big screen sky scapes. All of these elements are significant proponents of a life that he grew up with in the border region of West Texas and still subsist in our social/cultural lives today.”
“Wendy Hauschildt also utilizes text in her paintings,” said Freeman. “For Hauschildt, the literariness of words gives her painting a greater power. The text within her paintings also help her to continually be intrigued and discover more of herself, they are part of her stimulus of invention. This series of Hauschildt’s new work deals with death and renewal, ending and beginning, the cycle of life, change is life.”
“Words on paintings, the irregular shape of text on a figurative background, hard edged against organic, literal against iconoclastic and subjective, two distinct and separate realities brought into one focus. Come and investigate these painters and transcend your aesthetic,” added Freeman.
South Texas College’s Library Art Gallery Program exhibits regional, national and international artwork, explores new visions and theories of creativity, and introduces innovative artistic expressions to the South Texas region.
For more information call Sofia K. Vestweber at 956-872-3488, libraryart@southtexascollege.edu or visit lag.southtexascollege.edu.
PLASMAN EN SUS LIENZOS ASUNTOS MEXICANOS
Lunes, 04 de Mayo de 2009Ricky Armendáriz y George Zupp plasman en su lienzo obras de arte
El sound Art Space se llenó de color con la exhibición de Ricky Armendariz y George Zupp.Originario de El Paso Texas, Armendáriz plasma en su lienzo los derechos humanos, muchas de sus obras muestran la preocupación por la situacion de fermecidio que se vive actualmente en cuidad Juárez, asi como el sufrimento de los migrantes mexicanos.
Zupp, se inspira principalmente en anecdotas personales asi como en la vida de los migrantes que cruzan a Estados Unidos.
Una buena platica con sus amigos es lo que mas disfruta de pintar sus obras de arte.
En una inaguracion de la exhibición los asistentes disfrutaron de musica lounge y exquisitos bocadillos.
