We are very sad to report the death of the well-known Dominican artist Belkis Ramírez, who passed away yesterday. I first became aware of her work in Julia Álvarez’s The Cafecito Story (see woodcut below), which made me find out about her impressive corpus.  Art critic Laura Gil said that in Ramírez’s work, the “true protagonist is the format itself, which is the artist’s very aesthetic. In this aesthetic, the xylographic sheet changes from being an instrument in the service of the artwork’s material formalization to being an intervened artistic object in itself that is halfway between relief, bulk sculpture, and sculptopainting” (“Belkys Ramírez: El espacio.” ArtNexus, 2003).

Here is a report from The World News:

Visual artist Belkis Ramírez died tonight due to a cancer she could not overcome.

Sociologist Juan Miguel Pérez wrote, “My soul friend, the great artist Belkis Ramírez, has just passed away. Standing applause for a genuine princess of the Dominican Republic’s art world. My most recent publication included as an illustration “Días de sol,” one of her best works. Another hummingbird on the way to the sun.”

Curator and art critic Clara Caminero also expressed regret for Ramírez’s untimely death. “May your soul travel the path of light. RIP Belkis Ramírez,” she wrote.

Last year, Ramírez was nominated for the Queen Sonja 2018 Print Award, one of the greatest accolades for graphic arts in the contemporary art sphere.

Ramírez was one of the few candidates considered for the award, whose selection took place in April 2018, by an international jury made up of prominent personalities of the art world, among them, artist Tauba Auerbach, recipient of QSPA in 2016; Okwui Enwezor, director of Haus der Kunst, Munich; and Lars Nittve, founding director of the Tate Modern.

Artistic life

Dominican artist Belkis Ramírez worked in Santo Domingo and New York. She graduated in Architecture and Graphic Design at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD). She is also a graduate of Altos de Chavón. She studied photolithography at the University of San José, Costa Rica. Her work has been shown in the most prestigious national events and international stages, and is found in important publications and collections.

In 1994, with her work “De la misma madera,” she won the Grand Prize at the XIX National Biennial of Visual Arts in Santo Domingo, where she has also received other awards in different categories. She was also a winner in the E. León Jiménez Art Contest; the FAO RD Print Contest; as well as various national and international scholarships and residencies.

Translated by Ivette Romero. See original article (in Spanish) at https://theworldnews.net/do-news/muere-la-artista-plastica-belkis-ramirez

Source (Laura Gil quote): https://www.revolvy.com/page/Belkis-Ram%C3%ADrez

Woodcut from The Cafecito Story from https://www.juliaalvarez.com/gallery/cafecito.php