Biography

- Richard “Ricky” Armendariz (b. 1969, El Paso, Texas) was raised on the U.S.-Mexico border, a region that heavily influenced his artistic, aesthetic, and conceptual ideas. Images that have cultural, biographical, and art historical references are carved and burned into the surface of the paintings, drawings, and wood blocks. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The University of Texas at San Antonio (1995), and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999). Armendariz is currently a Full Professor at The School of Art, The University of Texas at San Antonio where he teaches painting and drawing. In 2008, he received the Artpace Supplemental Travel Grant for travel to Mexico City, Mexico. In 2013 was an artist in residence at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin Germany, and in 2018, and 2022 Anderson Ranch in Snowmass Village, CO. In 2017 he was the first artist in residence at the DoSeum in San Antonio, TX. He has exhibited at the Denver Art Museum, The Dallas Contemporary, The Contemporary at Bluestar in San Antonio, and Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin. International exhibitions include: Liminal Space, DMZ Museum, South Korea (2018), Common Wounds, Bethlehem and Tel Aviv (2005), and “New Prints” Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin Germany (2013), Texas Contemporary Art”, Lalit Kala Academy, National Academy of Art, New Delhi, India(2015). He is in the permanent collections of the San Antonio Museum of Art, McNay Art Museum, Ruby City, Blanton Museum, Denver Art Museum, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Massachusetts and the Bush International Airport Houston Art Collection, and The Cheech Marin Collection, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture, Riverside, CA. Future research includes a commissioned large scale carved oil painting for the new Texas Cavaliers Education Center at The Alamo depicting the history of San Antonio through the Independence of Texas from Mexico opening Fall 2025.