Guillem Ramos-Poquí

Guillem Ramos-Poquí
Guillem Ramos-Poquí
Born	Barcelona, Spain 1944. Living in London since 1968
Education	BA Hons Barcelona Faculty of Fine Art. P/G Ecole des Beaux Arts Paris. P/G Pratt Centre Printmaking New York. P/G Slade, University College London. MA Royal College of Art London. PhD Painting Barcelona Faculty of F.A.
Occupation	Head of Fine Art Kensington and Chelsea College London (1990-2004). Lecturer in Advanced Painting Morley College London 2004-2013.
Known for	Povera Art and Conceptual Art. Painting. Printmaking. Digital Art. Collages. Assemblages.
Awards	French Government (Cercle Maillol) Fellowship to Paris (1965-66). American Elias Ahuja Art Specialist Fellowship to New York (1967-68). Member of the Royal Society of Arts.

Guillem Ramos-Poquí (born 1944, Barcelona) is a painter who was a major figure of Arte Povera and Conceptual art in Catalonia during the 1960s. He has lived in London since 1968.

Guillem Ramos-Poquí grew up in Barcelona where he studied painting at the city's School of Fine Art. During the 60s he was a major figure in the Catalan Conceptual art and Arte Povera avant-garde. After being awarded several art fellowships that took him to Paris and New York, he settled in London in 1968 where he studied at the Slade and the Royal College of Art. In 1995 he received his Ph.D. in Fine Art Painting from the University of Barcelona for his art work and thesis entitled The Conceptual Dimension in Art: Theory as an Inherent Component of the Practice of Painting, written in Catalan. He was Head of Fine Art at Kensington and Chelsea College (1990-2004) and Lecturer in Advanced Painting at Morley College (2004-2012). He has exhibited extensively in London and abroad.

In 1965 Ramos-Poquí was awarded a fellowship from the French Government to work in Paris and was given a studio at the where he held an exhibition of collages featuring photo cut-outs, graffiti and letter/number transfers. Although these 1965 collages have a post-Pop Art feel, their employment of a personal code and incorporation of mechanical, automatic and lyrical formal elements defy categorisation. His 1967 work, exhibited in the Gallery of the Institute of North American Studies in Barcelona, consisted of a series of minimalist 'signs' made with industrial spray paint. Ramos-Poquí was granted the American Elias Ahuja Art Specialist Fellowship to New York, where he had a studio from 1967 to 1968.

'Collage of the Telephone' on paper 1965

'Eyes' Collage on paper 1965

'Eight Signs'. 1967. Industrial spray on paper and canvas

Ramos-Poquí belongs to the generation of Catalan artists of the 1960s who emigrated to Paris, London and New York, including fellow artists such as , who also spent time in London, Antoni Miralda, Benet Rosell and Jaume Xifra. Ramos-Poquí’s works from this decade include a series of collages juxtaposing dynamic forms with the use of industrial spray paint to allude to mechanical progress. During the 60s he also produced a series of ‘found objects’ belonging to the consumer market, with which he created assemblages. They reveal the impact of Pop Art and the works of Rauschenberg on his work. The small scale and poetic associations of many of these assemblages from the 60s echo the Surrealist objects by Joan Miró and the boxes by Joseph Cornell, as pointed out by the author Gerald L. Bruns and the art critic . Other assemblages are more explicitly linked to a spirit of revolt. In September 1968 he staged an exhibition and installation of his Arte Povera 'found objects' displayed in boxes and Conceptual Art pieces, consisting of 'photographs of ideas', at the Arts Lab in Drury Lane, London. Because of these works he is considered, according to Catalan Art Critic and Historian , the forerunner of Arte Povera and Conceptual Art in Catalonia.

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