DENISE RAMOS & TRICIA MOREAU SWEENEY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT

WOMEN & THEIR vVORK

J [; N [ 2 7 - A l I G L' s T 3 I 2 0 0 2

A {' s T I N I T [ X A s

Denise Ramos' most recent works, though

simJar in many ways to her first endeav­

ors, have taken a subtle and interesting

new direction . Though more muted in

palette, many of these works convey as

much, if not more, of the same radiance

and luminosity. In many ways, Ramos has

slightly slufted her focus to accommodate

the increased mastery of her m edium.

Her drive to capture what appealed to her

aurally has become something in and of

itself: an attestation of beauty in color,

modeling of form, and the transcendence

of paint.

Denise Ramos, Installation, Untitled Series, 2001-2002. All?yJ anJ oil on canvas.

These surfaces, whether in cool grays

or electric hues, are luscious and sed­

uctive. The vertical, modeled stripes

at one moment seem lJ~e velvety dra­

peries, while at others seem like bars

of glowing fluorescent light. Ramos,

ever aware of her worl/ s visual potential

to hypnotize and lull, often juxtaposes

DENISE RA1\10S

Painting has a lot to compete with in

the contemporary world of art, and with

installation, video, digital media, and

cable TV, it's often easy to forget just

how stimulating a worb on canvas can be.

Denise Ramos has not forgotten, however,

and her paintings, deceptively simple

and minimally composed, remind us

that paintings on canvas are not only

relevant in a historical context, but still

pack a transcendent visual punck

Ramos, a self-taught painter, initially

began painting as a means to illustrate

another love: sound and music. Her paint­

ings, carefully glazed and always arranged

in a linear series, were the translation of

what she saw in her mind's eye: colorful

sonic vibrations. A musician in her own

right, Ramos painted what she felt when

playing her electric guitar. These worhs, in

eye-popping and vibrant monochromes,

filled the studio space where she worl~ed,

listened, and performed, lil~e sound

waves which had somehow taben form

and lined themselves onto the walls.

Denise Ramos, Installation, Untit/e,l Series, 2002. AJl~yJ anJ oil on canvas.

DENISE RAMOS, resides in Houston, TX. S/1e attended I11e Gfassell Scl1ool o/ Art, Tl1e Museum o/ Fine Arts, Houston, TX. /rom 1982-1985 and received an J-'issociate o/ Applied Science in Culinary Arts, /rom t/1e Art Institute o/ Houston, TX. in 1994. Denise Ramos l1as been in group exhibitions since 1998 in Texas and Neu; York .

buttery colored pigments with a deep,

shocbing purple or red. Sometimes she

does this within the same painting, or

interrupts a series with a typically exclam­

atory interjection. In this sense, she has

created a perfect marriage between her

two passions: a slow, dreamy sequence,

musical in nature, acquires a fast tempo.

Denise Ramos relishes this control over

her viewers, and libe any good performer

putting on a show, wants the audience to

get the biggest visual bang that they can

before wall<ing away. This is why she hangs

one of her worl<s at a peculiar and effective

level. Ramos, incapacitated from an auto­

mobile accident since high school, paints

from her wheelchair. It is at her eye-level

while seated, then, that she has chosen to

arrange this recent worl<. While this may

seem unorthodox compared to most gallery

installations, it really mabes the painting

more accessible, and the difference between

the hanging of this worl< and the others

mal<es a significant statement. Ramos has

thought to install benches before the worb,

thus enabling the viewer to sit, contemplate,

and enjoy the worb as she has done in her

own studio. Ramos bnows that loobing at

a painting can be a moving and thought­

provobing experience, and shouldn't

necessarily be an uncomfortable one.

It seems unfortunate that more museums

and galleries can't or don't tabe her cue.

Denise Ramos is a painter who, aware of the

digital and teclmological wonders around

her, wants to dazzle her viewers with li~ht and color and beauty. Perhaps teaching

herself how to create these wonders was a

wise choice; in lieu of trying to mabe worbs

that would try to compete with more up­

to-the-minute media, she mabes glowing

reference to these media without tal<in~ away fro1n her own.

TRICIA MOREAU SWEENEY

Tricia Moreau Sweeney's photographs are

disturbing and paradoxical. Generally set

in what appears to be a typical bacb yard

or lwusehold interior, often depicting the

actions of a young housewife and her small

child, these pictures are layered with com­

plicated meaning. In one Self-Portrait (1999), Sweeney stands amidst the hang­

ing clothes on a line with only her legs

differentiating her from the drying shirts.

At first glance this strucb me as comical,

something a little girl might thinb of to

amuse a friend while playing in the yard;

however, there is something about the

juxtaposition of colors, the nighttime set­

ting, and the way the edge of a plastic pup

tent intrudes into the ri~ht side of the frame

that darl<ens the humor. What seemed

goofy and pranl<ish settled into something

closer to loneliness and isolation.

The clump of dry, dead brush in the

corner lends a menacing element. Even

if she's on a camping trip and not in her

own bacb yard, she seems to have only

the other shirts for company.

In another Self Portrait, Sweeney captures

herself, mid-leap, as she hops upon a stove

that has been abandoned outside. Here,

too, there is an air of playfulness at the

surface, a casualness. Yet Sweeney's red

house dress, battered heels, and gartered

stocl<ings are more the attire of the

temptress, of someone having been rav­

ished, in a I11e Postman Always Rings Twice manner.

Tlwt Sweeney arranges these semi­

domestic scenarios outdoors adds an

element of magical realism. Her character

could be living outdoors, the exterior of

her home having mysteriously blown away.

Perhaps she's homeless, an out-of-touch

Tricia Moreau Sweeney, Recession, 1998. Type C Color Pholog,·apl1. 16" x 20"

woman practicing tbe memory of a

previous domestic life amidst a rural

junb pile. Or maybe sbe's just baving a

bacbyard adventure. Witb tbeir ricb

colors, idiosyncratic juxtaposition of

objects and subject, and dynamic

composition, tbese pbotograpbs bristle

with a number of enticing narratives.

Certain elements of Tricia Moreau

Sweeney's plwtograpbs are cinematic

and narrative in tbe way that many of

Cindy Sherman's best Untitled Film

Stills are. Botb artists capture tbe flavor

of tbe female psycbe of their generation.

Sweeney's film stills seem lifted from a

beautiful, funny and cynical indie movie,

a female-narrated Hal Hartley film,

complete with odd gestures and gorgeous,

painterly colors. Her self-portraits depict

despair, self-awareness, loneliness, dys­

functionality and neglect: the depression

and frustration tbat might drive a woman

to languish upon her bitchen counter. In

a world where so Inany won1en consider

tbemselves to be third generation femi­

nists, it is notewortby tlwt tbe sad and

possibly mistreated homemaber is still a

figure tbat can generate angst.

Sweeney's Recession pbotographs bring us

into a much more desperate environment

as she crawls tluough the grass after

a closed suitcase. Here the violence of

her character's world comes to the fore.

Although the possibility of whimsy is

present in the brilliant hues and bacb

yard setting, the domestic environment,

libe the counter top upon which Sweeney

lies, becomes an ensnaring world from

which there seems to be no exit. In

another Recession shot, we see Sweeney

Tricia j\•loreau Sweeney, Untitled, 1999. Type C Color Pl1otograpl1. 20"x 30"

from Jmee to torso as she rises unsteadily

from the grass. The implication that

she might be reeling from a blow is

present, although it is the viewer's job

to mabe this connection after seeing the

other photograph.

Ultimately, it is the tension between the

subtle implication of violence and the

seemingly whimsical approach to this

woman's dea(lly boredom that mabe Tricia

Moreau Sweeney's worbs so compelling.

She affords her viewers a nosy-neigh­

bor' s-eye-view: enough so that a "polite"

voyeur might glance, raise an eyebrow, and

walk past without un(lerstancling the seri­

ousness or desperation of the situation.

Her character's solitude and victimization

are as quiet as the lives of the women who

endure sucb realities on a daily basis, and

whose cries are oftentimes only heard by

those who loob and listen carefully.

Laura Larb

Houston, TX

June, 2002

T!~!C!A MO!~EAL: S\X!EfNEY, resiLtes in Houston, TX. S/1e graduated Cum Laude wit/1 a B.F.A in Visual Arts: P/1otograp/1y /Art

History /rom University a/ Houston. S/1e fws received many awants and scf?o/ars/1ips: a je/fou:s/1ip lo i/1e University of 1//iJ10is at C/1icago,

Sc/1oo/ o/ Art and Design; Women's Studio Works/wp, RoseJnta/e, N. Y, Anderson Ranc/1 Art Center, Snowmass, CO., and t/1e University of

1-!ouston, 1-fouslon, TX. Tricia Sweeney /1as been in group exfu'bition since 1998 in Texas and California.

Tl1is Panel: Tricia Sweeney, Se/fPorlrait, 1999. Type C Color Photngrapk 20" x 30"

Cover Panel: Denise !~amos, Untitled, 2001 -2002. Alby,l and oil on ca nvas. 20" x 49"

Bad~ Panel: Denise l~anw>, Installation, Untitled Series (detail}, 2001-2002. AIJ~y<l ami oil on canvas.

Tricia Sweeney, Sei[Porlrait: Devoted to Home Duties and Pleasures , 1<)98. Type C Color Pllt>LograpiL 16" x 20"

vv 0 M ROARJ) OF mRF.CfORS

Jane Lilly Scholz, Presirlen/. l,atricia Shipton Lisa Ross '\'largo Saw~·c•·

Lama Bailie SlCJ)hanic llarko Laura PiCI\CU eall'cc Genny Duncan Ginger Geyer

\lan11' Sulli\'<111 Alexandm Wettlaufer

lla11· Jane Manford

STAFF

Chris Cowden, ExecuUI'e Direcwr Kathryn navidson. Associate mrector Teresa Parker, omce Manager Terri Asendm'f Ruiz. i \ssislant. Jlaith (;ay, Preparator Hebe Bentley, Gift Sflop Manager

This puiJlicaUon has IJecn made possible tl!l'ougll the generous support of the the National 8nrlowment for the Arts. Special thanks to B;\11! Design.

E N & T H E R vv 0 R K ............................................ ~ ......... ....................... ~ ......... , ... ~ .... ....... -.......... .... . ........... ··············································-

:\ow celebmling its 24th anniversary. Women & Theil' Work presents over 60 events a yea r in visual art. d8nce. theater, music. literature, ancl film. The ~allery features on-going exhibitions of Texas women artists and brings mtists of national statm'e to 'lcxas audiences. Since its found­in~. Women & Their Work has presentee! 1.660 artists in 209 visual art exhibitions. 100 music. dance. ancl t11eater events, 12 111m festivals, 20 literary readings. ancl 226 workshops in pi'Ogramming that reflects the ethnic ancl cultural diversity of this region. Nationally recognized. Women & Their \Vorl< has been featured in Art in America, J\rtFbrum ancl National Public Radio and was the J'irst m·ganization in Texas to receive a grant. in visual art from the National Endowment

for the Al'ts. Women & Tl1eir Work reaches over 5.000 school cllild1'en and teachers each year through gallery toms. gallery talks with exhibiting artists. participatory workshops. in-school performances. dance master classes. and teacher workshops.

\Y 0 II ~ \ & T II E I R \V 0 R K

I 7 I 0 L .I I .I C .I ST.

.H S T I \ . H \ .\ S 7 8 7 0 I (:i12i ii7-10(ii

1\lll(iilnas.n el

\\1\\I.I\Oillcnandihriri\OI'~ org