/ARCHIVE — 2009
/+15 Window
/Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo — Carnivalissimo
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/exhibition information
Stemming from the use of drawing as a personal act of remembering, Carnivalissimo depicts a complex narrative of historical, cultural and personal experience. Using the human body as a symbol and site for trauma, and a grotesque carnival as a stage, Castillo depicts the violence that marked El Salvador during the civil war in the 1980s, alongside North American iconography derived from pop culture. The resulting allegorical drawings explore issues of collective memory, cultural identity and historical trauma.
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/artist bio
Originally from El Salvador, Osvaldo Ramirez Castillo immigrated to Canada in 1989 and currently resides in Montreal. He holds the degree of MFA (Print Media) from Concordia University (Montreal, 2007). His work has been shown in Toronto, Montreal, New York, and internationally, most recently in the Biennial Beyond/In Western New York (Buffalo, 2007), and in the solo exhibition Legends, Myths and Icons at Centre Clark (Montreal, 2008).