Ángel Ramírez was born in Havana in 1954. The artist first studied at the National School of Art (la ENA) in 1977, then going on to the study at the Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA), graduating in 1982.

Heralded as the innovative force behind contemporary engraving trends, Ángel Ramírez’s signature style can be identified from a distance. His work flits between medieval imagery and post-modernist themes, stretching to both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works. His subject type, though similar to that of Carlos Guzmán, is presented in a more rudimentary manner; his use of lines are thicker, more pronounced—his figures are more simplistic, more byzantine.

Love and humour hang heavy in the works of Ángel Ramírez. Although his imagery owes much to a Western religious form of art, his depiction of figures and corresponding imagery allows his work to be seen in a more humorous, ironic way—in a more ‘graphic arts’ manner. As such he makes an effort to not be limited by media, using his studio space in its entirety as an aged, contemporary chapel to the ageless art. His work represents a subtle divinity and iconoclasm, co-existing ever so tenuously.

Through his use of pre-renaissance and pre-“high art” imagery, Angel Ramírez seeks to evoke the continuous conflicts lived by the human race regardless of period. He looks to capture the conflict between right and wrong, the struggle between dreams and power, the necessary allegories that evoke themes of freedom and justice. Ramírez sought to use aged imagery to subvert our contemporary understanding of graphic art and printed works—hence his engraving techniques being so inspirational to so many. 

Ramírez has been a pioneer for many in the engraving field. As such, he has risen to international fame and is collected by private and public collections in Europe, the U.S, Latin America and Asia. He has won numerous awards at Biennials and Art Events and is currently also collected by the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Havana.