Ricardo Ruiz’s cultural heritage is indigenous Mexican and Cherokee Indian. His art practice is rooted in drawing, and engages oral traditions that are grounded in curanderismo, Mexican faith healing. Using storytelling and superstition, Ruiz reflects on the everyday while accessing the past, present, and future. Working with personal memoir, ritual, and prose, Ruiz’s images explore the metaphysical spaces of mythical figures and interactions. The work expands on the traumas of marginalized groups within North America and provides a point of healing through spiritual reconciliation and mediation. During his residency at the Vermont Studio Center in June 2018, Ruiz developed 20 small works on paper as studies for larger paintings.
(Excerpt and image above selected from grant proposal. Artwork is copyright of the artist.)