Originally from the Catholic capital of Guadalajara, Mexico, he currently resides in Narrm Melbourne, Australia. Ramírez completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University and an Honours Degree of Fine Arts at Monash University. He is represented by MARS Gallery.
Curriculum Vitae ︎︎︎ ︎.PDF
contact(at)diego-ramirez.net
@diegoismonster
Short Bio
Diego Ramírez is an artist with dreams, a writer with hopes and a facilitator with beliefs. He has shown locally at ACMI in partnership with ACCA, Gertrude Glasshouse, Westspace, Blakdot and internationally at Deslave (Mexico), Human Resources (US), Torrance Art Museum (US), Art Central (HK), and Careof (IT). Ramírez has written locally for Art Gallery of Western Australia, Art and Australia, Disclaimer, MEMO, un Projects and internationally with NECSUS (NL) and BLUE journal (US x FR). As a facilitator, he is the Director at SEVENTH Gallery and sits in panels for Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne, and is a peer assessor for Australia Council. He is represented by MARS Gallery.
The Artist
Diego Ramírez works across a range of mediums. His solo exhibition Vampires of the Earth (2023) gained significant attention by consolidating his work with text, images, and materials such as resin, pespex and neon.
In 2018, he screened a collection of his moving image works at ACMI in partnership with ACCA in Diego Ramirez: Towards the Umbral, curated by Annabelle Lacroix. He is part of the survey show Melbourne Now at the NGV with his new video The Perfect Ever co-curated by recess in 2023. His moving image work is shown internationally, participating in Terror En Lo Profundo curated by Deslave at Human Resources LA in 2018 and Unco curated by Ian Haig at Torrance Art Museum in 2013. Various international festivals have shown his films, such as EXiS, FILE Sao Pualo, Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Kuala Lumpur EFVF, and Channels Video Art Festival.
He is also known for performance, like the black piñata filled with institutional confetti he broke in Contact High curated by Anador Walsh at Gertrude Glasshouse 2023, and the comical audition for Buffy The Vampire Slayer in Lifenessless at West Space x Gertrude Contemporary in 2019, as part of Ventriloquy curated by Joel Stern.
He also makes objects, including the life size vampire coffin for the group show Those Monuments Don’t Know Us in 2019. His work with pictures often takes over murals and facades, such as the large scale banner exhibited at Aeon Resurrection curated by Jake Treacy in 2022, which tackles Columbus’ manipulation of a solar eclipse. This is an ongoing project he explored earlier as a mural in Necronomicon Uploaded at Desvale, in their address Av. H Cristobal Colon, Tijuana, Mexico.
The Writer
He incidentally became a writer by doing catalogues for friends, early in his career. Today he regularly contributes essays, profiles, reviews and prose to a range of publications. In 2022, he wrote a catalogue essay for Jon Campbell in Speech Patterns, at AGWA. His arts criticism features in Art and Australia, NECSUS, un Projects, Runway Journal, Art Collector, Running Dog, MEMO, Art Collector, Art Guide, Blue Journal, Meanjin, Performance Review and Australian Book Review.
In 2019, he presented The Horrible Affair between a Sadistic Image and a Masochistic Text at West Space as part of WRITING&CONCEPTS, a lecture on the relationship between his art and writing. Ther next year, he participated in Writing In The Expanded Field with ACCA x non/fictionLab. In 2022, he delivered a masterclass for the Digital Young Writers Program at the National Gallery of Australia.
He has spoken about his ideas on art and writing, on high profile media channels such as ABC and SBS. As well as conference presentations such as Dark Eden at Artspace, and Experimenta Social at ACMI X. In 2021, he participated on a panel for Print Screen at the National Gallery of Victoria, speaking about digital publishing.
The Facilitator
Somewhere along the way, he also started a career laboring in the arts. His activities in this area are (mostly) aligned to his values in art and writing. He is the former Director of Seventh Gallery, an artist led organisation with a collective mindset that became notable during his tenure (2018-2023). He left to focus on new projects at a height, after securing the future stability and well being of the organisation with Co-Chairs Lana Nguyen and Eliki Reade.
Since taking over the space in late 2018, and in strong collaboration with Thea Jones and the rest of the Board, Seventh underwent a crucial period of transformation and rapid growth. Moving from a forgotten grassroots space, to a key micro arts organisation that employs staff to run multiple funded programs, including 2 fully subsidised studios, mentorships, public programs and workshops.
In 2022, he participated as an assessor in Creative Victoria’s Creators Fund, City of Melbourne’s Annual Arts Grants Panel and City of Darebin’s Art Collection Acquisition Panel. He is also a peer assessor for Australia Council and a panel member for Darebin Art & Heritage Advisory Panel.
He is the Editor in Residence for un Magazine’s Extended platform in 2023. This builds upon his work as the Editor-at-large at Running Dog in 2020.
Media Appearances & Reviews
