On Breaking Out As A Self-Taught Artist with Bony Ramirez

Today on Clay in Color, we chat with Bony Ramirez. He creates mixed media paintings and sculptures of Black and Brown figures that represent the diversity of contemporary Caribbean life with the underlying tension of colonialism and its effects. In our interview, we talk about Ramirez's life before and after his "big break" in 2020 and the emotional toll of his journey towards becoming an artist with a self-taught background. We also discuss gatekeeping and arbitrary expectations and labels of the art world, his multilayered approach to art-making, and his could-have-been career as a ceramicist. Furthermore, he tells us about his plans to evolve his practice in the future and how he is working to represent his own pain and healing in his work more directly.