Paul Ramírez Jonas (born 1965, Pomona, California) is an American artist and arts educator, who is known for his social practice artworks exploring the potential between artist, audience, artwork and public. Many of Ramirez Jonas's projects use pre-existing texts, models, or materials to reenact or prompt actions.
He has participated in the Johannesburg Biennale, the Seoul Biennial, the Shanghai Biennial, the 28th São Paulo Biennial, the 53rd Venice Biennale, and the 7th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Early life and education
Paul Ramírez Jonas was born in 1965 in Pomona, California and raised in Honduras. In 1987, Ramirez Jonas graduated with a B.A. from Brown University, and went on to earn an M.F.A. in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989.
Career
Shortly after receiving his Master’s Degree, Ramírez Jonas began exhibiting his work in New York in 1990. From the 1990-2004, Ramírez Jonas was primarily known for producing artworks that utilized a wide array of media for display in galleries. For example, he was recognized for a series of sculptures where he recreated historical kite designs for the experiments of Alexander Graham Bell and other inventors. It should be acknowledged that in this period his practice was not limited to only gallery exhibitions but included performance that interacted with audience members. In 1991, in collaboration with fellow artist Spencer Finch, the duo created an alternative audio tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, entitled Masterpieces Without the Director. However this format of presentation was an exception and much of his recognition in the 1990s and into the 2000s was in both in commercial and institutional gallery exhibitions. This period would culminate in a survey show in 2004 at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, UK. This exhibition examined the early works of Ramírez Jonas and his exploration of technological progress as a backdrop to address concepts of time, memory and loss. Despite this emphasis, in the catalogue that accompanied the 2004 Ikon exhibition, editor Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy acknowledges the artist's growing interests in “public space”.
As the 2000s progressed, Ramírez Jonas created public works to intimate drawings, performances and videos. Through his practice, he sought to challenge the definitions of art and the public and to engineer active audience participation and exchange. Ramírez Jonas described his role as "extending beyond the private reader, and into someone who invites viewers to join in. The result of this shift is the reassertion of a contract between the artwork and its public." In addition to conceiving public projects, both permanent (Taylor Square in Cambridge, and Hudson River Park, New York City) and temporary (such as Talisman at 28th Bienal de São Paulo, 2008), Ramírez Jonas was the subject of numerous solo exhibitions. He has participated in the 1st Johannesburg Biennale; the 1st Seoul Biennial; the 6th Shanghai Biennial; the 28th São Paulo Biennial and the 53rd Venice Biennial.