Alex Ramos (State College, PA) is a self-taught artist specializing in painting realistic still life in acrylic. Using small brushes, careful color selection, and abundant patience, he executes lifelike depictions of things we encounter on a regular basis often without contemplating their details and intricacies. Subjects range from the organic, such as fruits and vegetables, to the manufactured, such as glassware and pottery. Paying careful attention to nuances of color and the interplay of light with different surfaces and materials, these still life paintings constitute a meditation on the beauty and complexity of the world around us. Capturing minute details and rendering them with a precision often mistaken for photography, they compel the viewer to slow down and observe these objects in a new light.

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In addition to still life, Alex has also painted landscapes, cityscapes, and seascapes, drawing especially from the places he has lived and visited, such as Philadelphia and coastal Maine. As with his still life works, these paintings are also painted in a realistic style with attention to detail, resulting in works that are often mistaken for photos at first glance. In addition to these subjects, he also has a popular series portraying popular science fiction characters as saint in the style of Byzantine iconography.

 

Based in central Pennsylvania, Alex Ramos has participated in numerous fine arts and craft fairs in the commonwealth, including the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Manayunk Arts Festival, and Bellefonte Arts and Crafts Fair. He regularly exhibits paintings at State College Framing Company and Gallery and the Bellefonte Art Museum.

 

In addition to his artistic pursuits, Alex Ramos is the Managing Editor at Penn State University Press, where he gets to work on books on a wide range of interesting subjects. He also holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Religious Studies and has published a book based on his dissertation.

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