Kristen Ramirez
Mapping & Mocking the Anthropocene
Screen prints, mixed media works on paper, sculpture, signage, and a suite of sandwich boards comprise Mapping & Mocking the Anthropocene, a darkly humorous installation that explores the profound impact of the human hand on our planet.
- November 1 - December 7, 2018
- Opening: Thursday, November 1
Note: Gallery 4Culture will close at 2:00 pm on Wednesday, December 5 for an all-staff retreat. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes.
Creative Time Summit – Live Stream and Discussion with Kristen Ramirez: Friday, November 2, 12:00 – 2:00 pm
The Creative Time Summit is an annual convening for thinkers, dreamers, and doers working at the intersection of art and politics. The 11th annual Summit, On Archipelagoes and Other Imaginaries: Collective Strategies to Inhabit the World, will take place in Miami, Florida, from November 1st to 3rd. As a platform for connectedness, Kristen Ramirez will be hosting a live stream of a portion of the event and ensuing discussion. Space is limited, so RSVP now to jordan.howland@4culture.org.
Closing: Thursday, December 6, 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Centering contemporary environmental issues and taking stock of the effect of human activity on the transformation of our surroundings, Kristen Ramirez employs bright colors alongside sensibilities borrowed from design and commerce to highlight violence against the natural world—and, in turn, against ourselves. The works on display aestheticize pressing and disturbing ecological realities. Using aerial photography of altered landscapes, curious text from scholarly publications and speeches, commercial signage, and deconstructed images of the sun and moon, Ramirez asks viewers to consider our collective environmental impact.
Welcome to the Anthropocene, our new geological epoch and our future—one in which human influence has the same level of impact on the natural world that rivers, floods, and erosion have had historically. Through her exhibition, Ramirez suggests that we can adapt to this new future, so long as we are armed with both humor and critical thinking.
About the Artist
Kristen Ramirez is a studio and public artist living and working in Seattle. She earned a BA from University of California Santa Cruz, an MA in education from San Francisco State University, and an MFA from the University of Washington. Ramirez has had a lengthy career in arts education and administration and has taught at the University of Washington, Edmonds Community College, Pratt Fine Arts Center, and Cornish College of the Arts. She currently manages public art projects for the City of Seattle, acting as a liaison to the Department of Transportation. Her studio and public practices are intertwined and crisscrossed. Ramirez toggles between artwork created for gallery-like settings and art for the public realm, where she creates community-based projects and large-scale murals. She has exhibited throughout the Puget Sound region and is thrilled to be back at Gallery 4Culture where she first mounted an exhibition in 2006.