Isabella Kelly-Ramirez
Location: Los Angeles
Occupation: Artist
Isabella Kelly-Ramirez is a mixed media assemblage artist who creates surreal feminist portraits. Her compositions flow from order to chaos, using a cosmetic color palette and stark white pages. Isabella recontextualizes the faces of mainstream media with giant eyes and lips. These proportions are reminiscent of plastic dolls or an obsessive plastic surgery map.
With a keen eye for pattern, play, and texture Isabella manipulates found images with humor and irony. Her collages confront the enduring fascination with pop culture and present how twisted today’s cosmetic world can be.
Currently, Isabella has a solo show at Gallery 825 called “All the Missing Pieces”. In addition to her striking collages, you’ll find the “Ego Altar”, which represents ideas surrounding the ubiquity, absurdity, and sanctity of mainstream representation.
Isabella grew up in Santa Barbara, California and earned a B.A. in Art from UCLA in 2008. Quite active in the Southern California art world, she has won numerous awards and scholarships and participated in juried competitions and community projects, including the Brooklyn Art Library’s traveling Sketchbook Project in 2011. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
When asked why do you choose art? She stated:
We all made art when we were children, before we knew what art even was. I believe that we are all born artists. At some point as we grow older, we enter the “real” world where, sadly, we aren’t encouraged to continue our practice. I choose art because, for me, there is nothing else. It is what makes life worth living. It is the product of individual thoughts and ideas derived from our reality to create an alternate, or different, reality. Art is a license to be who you wish to become without boundaries. Art is a question, but also the answer.
Upcoming shows:
Isabella’s solo show “All the Missing Pieces” is located at 825 W La Cienega Blvd and will run through the month of February. Please join her on February 19th for a special panel discussion at 7 pm located at Gallery 825 home of the Los Angeles Art Association.
For more information visit her website at isabellakellyramirez.com
Photographed by Baha Danesh.
