Belkis Ramirez is one of the Dominican Republic’s most prominent contemporary artists. Her work bridges the personal and the political in a very articulate manner. Issues of gender, race, freedom of speech as well as ecological challenges in Latin America are taken on through her direct graphic images, objects and installations.

Trained as an architect, and also an accomplished printmaker, Ramirez’s process often begins from cutting and carving planks of wood which have dualistic roles as objects in space or as surfaces from which to make and impression or an edition. Simple materials like wood, curtain eyelets, wire and domestic electric bulbs for lighting are employed in her constructions. In her characteristic pictorial language domestic objects are transformed.

“De la Misma Madera” (Of the Same Wood), an installation, in which a larger than life size sling shot standing in a pile of stones is aimed at a series of portraits of typical characters or people from everyday society. Made of the same materials, they are all at once the victims, the accusers and aggressors.

The swirling patterns, symbolism and the graphic simplification of her portraits all refer to popular art and religious iconography as well as a knowledge of the printing tradition; especially in Latin America.

The images and/or objects, which are sometimes self-portraits, become a series of staged selves acting out roles and hovering between the actual self, an “every- or anyone”, or anonymous and mythological representations. A cast of characters often unfolds in many of her works through which political issues are taken on and stories are narrated.

In many works, her characterizations are either fenced in with burglar type bars or barbed wire. They appear to entangle the character or become a means to guard or fence them in. In one work the wire becomes a wheel or forms the arms in a bow and arrow.
The artist has participated in a number of international exhibitions and is associated with a generation of contemporary artists in Latin America whose work came into prominence in the 80s. In her own country she is linked to artist like Jorge Pineda and Tony Capelan.