Mel Ramos & Erro
August 28, 2021 – November 28, 2021
Zeitgeist and attitude to life are paired in the works of Mel Ramos and Erró. Both artists are characterized by their distinctive imagery and high recognition value. In their own, fascinating style, the works of Mel Ramos and Erró deal with the themes of consumption, trivial culture, sexuality and the cult of the body in serial works and recurring image motifs. The two renowned artists have mastered the game of conflict between trivial everyday culture and high culture. Since the emergence of Pop Art in Great Britain and the USA in the 1950s, this art movement has critically questioned the foundations of fine art and social developments. The influence of popular culture, advertising and other means of mass culture is often illuminated with wit and charm and taken up in this new art direction.
Biography Mel Ramos
Mel Ramos was born on July 24, 1935 in Sacramento, California, USA. He studied art between 1954 and 1958 at Sacramento Junior College, San Jose State College and Sacramento State College, where he later took on a teaching position. In 1963, Ramos took part in the exhibition “Pop Goes the East” at the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston and in 1964 opened his first solo exhibition in a New York gallery. From 1966 to 1997, Ramos taught as a professor of painting at California State University in Hayward. Since 1964, Mel Ramos has been represented annually in numerous international group and solo exhibitions between the USA and Europe. He was awarded the National Endowment for the Visual Artists Fellowship Grant and the United States/France Exchange Fellowship in 1986. He died on October 14, 2018.
Biography Erro
Erró was born Guðmundur Guðmundsson on July 19, 1932 in Ólafsvík, Iceland. From 1952 to 1954 he studied at the Art Academy in Reykjavík and in Oslo and then went to Florence, where he worked with mosaic art, among other techniques. In 1958 he moved to Paris, where he has lived and worked ever since. In 1960 he took part in the exhibition “Antiproces” there with some of his works. From 1961 to 1966 he participated in the Paris exhibition “Salon de Mai”. In 2010, Erró was honored with the French Légion d’honneur for his special achievements.