Centro Cultural Ajijic (CCA) inaugurates “Arte Orgánico”, the first solo exhibition by Mario Ramírez, on Saturday, June 27, at 5:30 p.m.
The show features more than 20 new works in acrylic, watercolor, oil and mixed media, reinterpreting landscapes, traditions and everyday life through the artist’s memories of agave fields and Mexican popular art — the formative influences that shaped his visual world.
“My art turns the textures of my journey — the light, the effort, the joy — into timeless images that echo through the ages,” Ramírez says.
A celebrated artist and muralist from Tequila, Jalisco, Ramírez was drawn to painting from boyhood. In 2019, he relocated to Ajijic to work as a full-time artist, and once he had built a body of work, he launched his Facebook page and soon began receiving commissions for paintings and murals. He has since created some 50 murals at Lakeside, designing and contracting each project himself, with his assistant Itzel Monteon of Ixtlahuacán lending a hand when painting begins.
His practice spans acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, oil and linocut, distinguished by a vibrant palette and organic patterns rooted in Mexican popular art and the landscapes around Lake Chapala. He also works in scratchboard — a technique involving sharp knives applied to a thin layer of white clay coated in dark ink. For this exhibition, he introduces two new approaches: painting on wood and a color-saturated acrylic style that, he says, “will represent very colorful Mexican culture.”
Ramírez has exhibited widely at regional
shows and fairs, and recent honors include first place at the third Día de Muertos group exhibition at the CCA. He participates in two or three collective shows at Lakeside each year, and his work appears regularly at the Lake Chapala Society art fairs, Art in the Plaza and with the Artists of Lake Chapala — where his paintings are complemented by designs on coffee mugs and small-format pieces.
During the opening, the Ixtlacateotl folkloric ballet and Mariachi Juvenil de Axixic will perform on the esplanade outside.
The exhibition runs through July 17. The CCA is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Ramírez’s workshop is located at La Huerta 120 in Villa Nova, Ajijic.