Instagram: www.instagram.com/ferny_ramos_jr/
Biography
Fernando Ramos is an emerging artist from Woodland, California. He is currently based in Sacramento, where he graduated from Sacramento State University with a Bachelor of Science. Fernando has no formal training in art besides a couple of classes taken at CSUS where he learned the fundamentals of hand building. His development as an artist takes place in his practice. Fernando has been working with clay for 3 years and recently starred in his debut solo show at Signa Gallery in March 2026.
Artist Statement
Clay allows me to discover and work through ideas. I often begin a vessel with a hazy visual in mind and gradually discover the details through the process. Using clay as a sketchbook, I outline the crude form. This process is done by using solid blocks of clay because it gives me the freedom to manipulate the clay with ease. I then slowly refine the vessel through additions, subtractions, and changes in gesture until it’s time to hollow. This sketching phase can be seen as a time to play and discover ideas; the next phase of hollowing is a time of quiet reflection which demands patience and labor. It’s through the repetitive act of carving that I’m able to meditate on the vessel’s meaning. Once the vessel is hollow, there is a brief lull in the work as it is left to dry and be fired. The firing stage is important because it transforms the vessel into ceramic, giving it a quality of permanence. It’s at the firing stage where outcomes are out of my control and must be accepted. The final stage of the process is painting. Historically, this point has been the most difficult for me because it traps me in indecision. Paint has a decisive quality that leaves little room for error. It’s at this stage where I’m forced to let go of expectations and trust myself in the work. At each stage in the process, there is a chance for discovery; some accident that happened without my control or a path my intuition led me down. It’s not until the vessel is complete that I’m finally able to see what my psyche first brought forth to me.
A cornerstone of my practice is in the material qualities of clay and paint. Clay stretches, breaks, and shrinks without my intention. There is an element in the matter that is out of my control. Clay is also transformed from lumps of dirt into a body with form. Paint, on the other hand, has a language of color. This language is used to express a mood. Both clay and paint come together to create a vessel which is alive and permanent.
This untitled vessel is inspired by the masks in folklore. Traditionally, masks have played an important role in rituals and ceremonies. They are used as tools for transformation often used to symbolize the transition from adolescence to adulthood, mortal to spirit, or man to myth. Transformation as a process is filled with pain and suffering but also valuable change.
Untitled
Clay fired to cone 6, acrylic paint
9”h x 14”w × 4.5”d
2026
NFS