Being There.
The art work of Eugenio Ramirez manages to capture, at a first glimpse, the imprint which photography so values. Of course, this is no easy task for we must not forget that this is painting- color on canvass: perspective, volume and depth that Ramirez translates into colored shapes, dominating a technique that is impossible to overlook. Meticulous, thorough and precise, it is an investigation that pursues the possibility of being able to see in order to portray as a result. At the very moment we stand in front of his work, we are able to see that which is so evident that we fail to assimilate. The material that was used as the basis for this set of paintings belongs to Ana Amorosino. Eugenio Ramirez was never in Tokyo. Or perhaps we should say that he has in fact been there in the same way that we are when we look at his paintings. The series Tokyo allows us to perceive the effects of an unhappy coexistence. That which exists between objects and human beings reduced to graphic elements. Isolated, insular and solitary people communicate less that the billboards and signs that seek their attention. Obscure beings that shine less than a can of beer. Silent, they are incapable of telling us anything; a subway station or the streets at night are more eloquent.

CARS
Eugenio Ramirez’ love of cars dates back to his relationship with the vehicles he himself would buy second hand and with which he shared a long process of deterioration. Thus, he was able to observe that during this period of decadence, the vehicles acquired dysfunctions, partial paralyses, ticks and whims; they became human. A blue Opel K180 which illustrator Sergio Kern named “Rhapsody in Blue” had such difficulties when it came to the closing of the right hand front seat window that it could only be raised when the car was turning in that direction. That is to say that if the car had been parked with the window open, the artist would have to start the engine and drive around the block in order to close it. The next car was even older: a red 3CV Citröen which his daughters baptized “Happy”. When camping at El Bolson, (south of Buenos Aires in the Province of Neuquen) on the shores of the Rio Azul, they had to drive up a steep slope. The Citröen would barely make it with the girls shouting “Happy!”, “Hap-py!” to encourage it. Once, a hitchhiker joined the group and the car simply could not make it up the slope so the backpacker was invited out of the car to enable Happy, literally on the verge of a breakdown, to overcome the obstacle. The car finally died rather pathetically. At home on a first floor one night, Ramirez heard the familiar sound of a horn. When he stepped out on the balcony to see what was happening, he saw that the front lights were intermittently turning on and off to the sound of the horn that was crying out for help as the poor car’s electrical circuit caught fire. The agony ended only after several buckets full of water. The Citröen was followed by a beige Renault 12. Water would come in through holes on the car floor from which you could see substantial pieces of the pavement. One night they punctured a tire on Libertador Ave. and due to the absence of any assistance, the car was abandoned for good. In 1997, Ramirez bought his first brand new car. That Renault 9 is 12 years old today and has various humanoid traits. The ventilation starts chirping no sooner it has been turned on but, if you turn it off and then on again, you sometimes get it to work. The needle on the petrol tank display does not work and the speedometer indicates only up to the 100 km/h. The round handle on the gear shift tends to come off and roll around the car floor enjoying its moment of freedom. Sensitive to the human nature of his cars, Ramirez noticed that this quality also applied to those of others. In front of a body shop on El Salvador street in the neighbourhood of Palermo, he saw that they were recharging the battery of an old blueish black Cadillac with an open bonnet as if it were opening its mouth to proudly reveal, over its chromed bumper, the interior of the engine, the golden radiator and the red and white Champion battery. There is a sequence of three paintings of the red Chevrolet with a right-hand steering wheel which is parked on Holmberg Street in Saavedra, which, if we approach, allows us to look into its face: the gray eyes of the fractioned windshield, the bonnet’s pointed nose and a mouth shining with its chromed bars that smiles, yes…affectionately. With the dynamic designs and glittering chromes that boast of agility and elegance, the cars from the 1930s that Ramirez has painted and cut out in wood seem to accompany the love for speed of the people in those days. The models that followed, regardless of their speed and power, are no match where personality and enthusiasm are concerned.