A photograph of Carmen Ramos by Ross Whitaker

E. Carmen Ramos

Former Curator of Latinx Art

E. Carmen Ramos was the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s curator of Latinx art from 2010-2021. She dramatically expanded the museum’s extensive collection of Latinx art with an eye toward capturing the broad aesthetic and regional range of the field. Her research interests include modern and contemporary Latinx, Latin American and African American art. She organized ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now (2020), Tamayo: The New York Years (2017) and Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art (2013).

Exhibitions

¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now

In the 1960s, activist Chicano artists forged a remarkable history of printmaking that remains vital today.

November 20, 2020 – August 8, 2021
Tamayo: The New York Years

Tamayo: The New York Years is the first exhibition to explore the influences between this major Mexican modernist and the American art world.

November 2, 2017 – March 17, 2018
Down These Mean Streets: Community and Place in Urban Photography

America’s urban streets have long inspired documentary photographers. After World War II, populations shifted from the city to the suburbs and newly built highways cut through thriving neighborhoods, leaving isolated pockets within major urban centers.

May 11, 2017 – August 5, 2017
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art

Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge.

October 25, 2013 – March 2, 2014

Books

¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now
Beginning in the 1960s, activist Chicano artists forged a remarkable history of printmaking that remains vital today. Many artists came of age during the civil rights, labor, anti-war, feminist and LGBTQ+ movements, and channeled the period’s social activism into assertive aesthetic statements that announced a new political and cultural consciousness among people of Mexican descent in the United States. The exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now presents, for the first time, historical civil rights-era prints by Chicano artists alongside works by graphic artists working from the 1980s to today.
Tamayo: The New York Years
Tamayo: The New York Years explores the influences between Rufino Tamayo (1899–1991), a major Mexican modernist best known for his boldly colored, semiabstract paintings, and the American art world. It reveals how he forged a new path in the modern art of the Americas and contributed to New York’s dynamic cultural scene as the city was becoming a center of postwar art.
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art
Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art explores how Latino artists shaped the artistic movements of their day and recalibrated key themes in American art and culture. This beautifully illustrated volume presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-twentieth century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. Our America includes works by artists who participated in all the various artistic styles and movements, including abstract expressionism; activist, conceptual, and performance art; and classic American genres such as landscape, portraiture, and scenes of everyday life.

Blog Posts

Protest and Remembrance: Chicanx Artists Confront Police Brutality
Artists honor victims of social injustice and create a space for communal grieving
The Changing Nature of Chicano Graphic Arts from 1965 to Today
Exploring how Chicanx artists continue to use graphic arts as a response to issues of the time
Chicano Graphic Arts and the Making of the Landmark Exhibition ¡Printing the Revolution!
Exploring the origins of the exhibition that combines innovative printmaking practices with social justice
The Aftermath of Hurricane María
A closer look at the rich and trans-historical Puerto Rican artworks in the museum.
Curator’s Travel Journal: In Rufino Tamayo’s Footsteps (6)
E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino Art at SAAM, was recently in Mexico to research her upcoming exhibition on the acclaimed 20th-century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo’s lengthy residence and production in New York City. This is the sixth and final post Carmen scribed from the road. The exhibition Tamayo: The New York Years will open at SAAM November 3, 2017. Read all of Carmen's notes from her research trip.
Curator’s Travel Journal: In Rufino Tamayo’s Footsteps (5)
E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino Art at SAAM was recently in Mexico to research her upcoming exhibition on the acclaimed 20th-century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's lengthy residence and production in New York City, Tamayo: The New York Years. This is the fifth in a series of posts Carmen scribed from the road. Stay tuned for more updates. Read all of Carmen's notes from her research trip.
Curator’s Travel Journal: In Rufino Tamayo’s Footsteps (4)
E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino Art at SAAM was recently in Mexico to research her upcoming exhibition on the acclaimed 20th-century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's lengthy residence and production in New York City, Tamayo: The New York Years. This is the fourth in a series of posts Carmen scribed from the road. Stay tuned for more updates. Read all of Carmen's notes from her research trip.
Curator’s Travel Journal: In Rufino Tamayo’s Footsteps (3)
E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino Art at SAAM is currently in Mexico to research her upcoming exhibition on the acclaimed 20th-century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's lengthy residence and production in New York City, Tamayo: The New York Years. This is Carmen's third post from Mexico. Stay tuned for more updates from the road.
Curator’s Travel Journal: In Rufino Tamayo’s Footsteps (2)
E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino Art at SAAM is currently in Mexico to research her upcoming exhibition on the acclaimed 20th-century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's lengthy residence and production in New York City, Tamayo: The New York Years. This is Carmen's second post from Mexico. Stay tuned for more updates from the road. Read all of Carmen's notes from her research trip.
Curator’s Travel Journal: In Rufino Tamayo’s Footsteps
E. Carmen Ramos, curator of Latino Art at SAAM is currently in Mexico to research her upcoming exhibition on the 20th-century Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo's lengthy residence and production in New York City, Tamayo: The New York Years.
Preparing for Our America: Muriel Hasbun and Washington, DC’s Salvadoran Community
Artist and educator Muriel Hasbun is a member of the largest Latino community in the greater D.C. region. Hasbun grew up in El Salvador and settled here as a student in the 1980s. She is now department chair and associate professor of photography at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Hasbun's personal history and artistic development speaks to a larger Salvadoran experience of migration and endurance in the midst of adversity.
Preparing for Our America: Portraying Community in a Contested Field
Curator E. Carmen Ramos and curatorial assistant Florencia Bazzano-Nelson discuss Sophie Rivera's untitled photographic portraits that will be included in our upcoming exhibition Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art, opening October 25, 2013.
New Acquisition: Welcoming Carmen Herrera, American Artist
Curator for Latino Art, E. Carmen Ramos, shares some of her thoughts about a recent acquisition now on view in the Lincoln Gallery on the third floor.
Latino Art 101 with Curator E. Carmen Ramos
E. Carmen Ramos became the Smithsonian American Art Museum's curator of Latino art last fall. Now that she's had a chance to get settled, we caught up with her to ask about her interests and the rich holdings of Latino art in the museum's permanent collection.