NINGUÉM SABE QUEM EU SOU
Aquarela e marcador sobre papel
75 x 57cm
2013
(este desenho foi feito no papel que era do Ademir Martins, presente da Mariana Pabst Martins)
A colorful range of cultural textures, either sensed or imagined, revealing a mestizied aesthetic that beautifully embodies mixed personal background roots, insights and visions. The young Brazilian artist demonstrated a gifted sensibility and skilled expressivity of freely applied imagination, as single and superlative sensorial experience.
Ramon Martins was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1981. At an early age he was moved to Barra Longa, countryside of Minas Gerais, to be raised by his widowed grandmother, in a bucolic landscape. He kept moving around familiars in different cities spending most of his childhood in transit observing the journey.
In 1987 he reencountered his mother, a hairdresser who still owns a hair saloon in Santa Luzia, suburban area of Belo Horizonte. While helping out at saloon duties, his enthusiasm in all kind of imagery and colors such as dying samples, posters, catalogs, magazines, Japanese manga characters and video games; drove him to become an obsessive self-taught drawing practitioner.
At the age of 14 Ramon travelled to Sao Paulo to meet his father, an appliance repair technician. It was the first long distance voyage by himself, to the pulse of urban area of Sao Paulo. Their meeting happened at Liberdade, a traditional neighborhood inhabited by the Asian community for the past decades – where he lives and works currently.
His adolescence was shaped by a dense period of revolt and introspection remarked by unfamiliar paternal figure, unstable home environment, search for individuality, sense of survival, variety of part time jobs, street camadarie, eastern philosophy and Buddhist literature. These issues were somehow expressed, relieved and processed through spray cans and markers where he felt most comfortable, the streets. Few years later, after an intense period of teenage in the streets practicing graffiti, many people were familiar with Ramon Martins’ work in Belo Horizonte and main Brazilian capitals.
In 2000 Project Guernica (BH, MG/BR, URB-AL Network European Union – Latin America) was launched. A socio-cultural initiative led by an interdisciplinary committee including sociologist, urbanists, philosophers and educators in partnership with the prefecture of Belo Horizonte, aiming to raise the quality of life, social inclusion and interaction of local inhabitants. Ramon was recruited to collaborate at Project Guernica as an art supervisor, providing graffiti workshops to local teenagers from suburban areas Belo Horizonte.
Motivated by his ability to work with art as a material for constructive environment, he felt encouraged to explore art more intensely and started studying BA Fine Arts at Guinard School of Art (UEMG), BH – MG in 2001. His display for both technical skill and artistic expressivity were immediately acknowledged and, midway through his BA course he was invited to participate and exhibit at international encounters of the socio-cultural initiative, as the Brazilian representative of Project Guernica URB- AL “Practice, Formations and Actions”, on its next editions, which were attended in France (2002), Brazil (2003), and Belgium (2004).
A colorful range of cultural textures, either sensed or imagined, revealing a mestizied aesthetic that beautifully embodies mixed personal background roots, insights and visions. The young Brazilian artist demonstrated a gifted sensibility and skilled expressivity of freely applied imagination, as single and superlative sensorial experience.
In 2005 he graduated specialized in drawing and ceramics and, after having presented his work both in public and private spaces around Brazil and Europe, Ramon Martins left his job to fully throw himself into art. At the year of his graduation his work was formally debuted to collectors by Galeria Léo Bahia Arte Contemporanea, from BH/MG, Brazil.
Ramon demonstrates a fluid spirit that crafts a collage of possibilities and reconfigurations.A kaleidoscopic universe that mirrors a deep and abundant essence rebelliously styled by street culture repertoire and combined to academic reflections. Since his debut Ramon kept on impressing with an uncommon style, layering an eclectic mix of approaches, languages and techniques.
The fabric of his universe is recognized by woven themes and elements as wild tropical nature, organic decorative sketches, Brazilian baroque motifs, urban street culture, Asian antique tradition, pop culture and its counterculture, mass solitude and anonymous portraits. But this texture would be fully demonstrated at best when challenged in great proportions.
In 2009 he was invited to take part of the first edition of the R.U.A Festival: Reflex on Urban Art in Rotterdam, which brought him great visibility and projection. It was at this occasion that Ramon Martins presented one of the most sparkling artwork of his career, “Love Spreads”, 2009.
A large-scale mural painting left outdoor in Dutch streets, which portraits an Asian female dressed in Harajuku street style, composed in an organic psychedelic background, eye-guiding throw the flow of a tropical graffiti with a Buddhist-punk texture. A vibrant painting that heated colorfully the white of streets of Rotterdam during its sharp winter.
Following the success of his open air presentation in Rotterdam, Ramon went on to take part at the exhibition “De Dentro Para Fora De Fora Para Dentro” (“From Inside Out and Outside In”), 2009 at MASP – Museum of Art Sao Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, which celebrated the appreciation of a record audience of over 140 thousand visitors in a period of 10 weeks, according to Choque Cultural Gallery, co-curator of the exhibition.
A sharp geopoetic is notable in his work. He articulates beautiful visual poetry from a wide vocabulary of places, times, cultures, behaviors and values. There is vibrancy, excitement and melancholia that despite the explosive visual exuberance, infuses an introspective connection. It sensually illuminates an oneiric realism, sharing with us possibilities to think differently about ourselves.
His work is often featured on publications of graffiti fine art, street art, urban art and mural art as one of the most innovative and eclectic Brazilian painters of his generation. These are formal recognition of his contribution and participation in Brazilian Street Art movement and cutting edge contemporary theme and style aesthetics.
Ramon Martins currently lives and works in Sao Paulo, Brazil. His work is represented in Brazilian major institutional collections including the MAM-RJ Museum of Modern Art, RJ/BR and MASP Museum of Art Sao Paulo, SP/BR. He has presented his work in murals and exhibitions in Brazil and Europe including:
// 2011
“Fire and Water” – commissioned mural painting (12 x 7,5 m), St. Francis College – SP/BR (2011);
“Immigrant Spirit” – commissioned mural painting (20 x 10 m), SENAC Lapa Scipiao – SP/BR (2011);
// 2010
“1st International Graffiti Fine Art Biennale” – MUBE Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, SP/BR (2010);
“Novas Aquisições 2007-2010” (New Acquisitions 2007-2010 of Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Gilberto Chateaubriand’s Public Collection) – MAM, RJ/BR (2010);
“Transfer” – Pavilhao das Culturas Brasileiras, Parque do Ibirapuera – Sao Paulo, SP/ BR (2010);
“Mon Ra” – Solo Show at Galerie Geraldine Zberro – PAR/FR (2010);
“Arapuca” – Solo Show at Galeria Choque Cultural – SP/ BR (2010);
// 2009
“De Dentro Para Fora De Fora Para Dentro” MASP Museum of Art Sao Paulo & Galeria Choque Cultural, SP/BR (2009);
“R.U.A Festival – mural painting “Love Spreads”, RTDM/NL (2009);
“Rotterdam Carnival” – Painting on Angola’s Allegoric Car, RTDM/NE (2009);
“A Forca da Rua” (The Strengh of the Street) – ABC Trust Auction – LDN/UK (2009);
“O Encontro”, Ano da França no Brasil (The Year of France in Brazil) – Centro de Cultura Renato Russo, BSB- DF /BR (2009);
“Graffiti Etat Des Lieux” – Galerie du Jour/Agnès B, PAR/FR (2009);
“Morreu de Amor” – Solo Show at Galerie Geraldine Zberro, PAR/FR (2009);
// 2008
“I Use the Blick”, Solo Show at Galeria Choque Cultural – SP/ BR (2008);
“Transfer”, Santander Cultural – Porto Alegre, RS/ BR (2008);
// 2007
“Novas Aquisições” (New Acquisitions of Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, Gilberto Chateaubriand’s Public Collection) – MAM, RJ/BR (2007);
“Cor da Rua” (Colors of Street) O’ Contemporary Gallery BN/UK (2007);
“Graffiti Arte na Paulista” (Graffiti Art at Paulista Avenue) – Homage to 100 Years of Japanese Immigration to Brazil– SP/BR (2007);
“…Y si vas al Chuy, traé Garotos!!!” Museo Blanes – MVD/UR (2007);
// 2006
“Draw-Drawing-2” – The Foundry Gallery, London Biennale, LDN/UK (2006);
“30 Horas de Graffiti Arte” (30 Hours of Graffiti Art) – Encontro de Graffiti – SP/BR (2006);
“Meeting Of Styles” – Encontro de Graffiti – RJ/BR (2006);
“Parabólica” – Encontro de Arte Urbana – Brasília, DF/BR (2006);
// 2005
“Mas Isto Também é?” – Galeria Léo Bahia Arte Contemporânea, MG/BR (2005);
// 2004
“Diário de Bordo” (On Board Diary)- URB-AL – Pavillon de la Garden e Gran Place – BRU/BE (2004)
“F.A.N Festival de Arte Negra” (Festival of Black Art) Graffiti Painting on the bus SC01 – MG/BR (2004);
“Hoje Enquanto Dure” – Urban Intervention – MG/BR (2004);
// 2003
“Dos Anos De Chumbo Aos Direitos Humanos” – Centro de Cultura de Belo Horizonte, MG/BR (2003);
// 2001
“BH Sans Culottes: The Risk Of Liberty” – Project Guernica, Collections des Musées, Belo Horizonte, MG/BR (2001).