(Art Ramon) Garcia Jr. was born in McAllen, TX in 1971. He grew up in Houston, TX, and throughout elementary school, he was the naturally gifted go-to artist when art projects required volunteers. In middle school, he took home-making and wood shop classes, in addition to art. Most of his formal artistic training occurred at North Shore Senior High School, where he learned the essential elements and principles of art and his self-study, How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way and Commander Mark: The Secret City.

Art Ramon dreamed of becoming an artist but was anxious and unsettled about career options in the art field. Without a mentor to encourage continued artistic study at a university and the monotony and boredom of continued living in Houston, he decided to join the U.S. Navy in 1991. For 5 1/2 years, adventure, military deployment worldwide, and a physically rigorous job consumed his time. He learned mechanics and hydraulics in U.S. Navy schools and tried to continue artistic endeavors while in the service, during his many hours at coffee houses while off work in his home port. However, the restrictive nature of military life did not fit his constitution, so he left the U.S. Navy in 1996. He started oil painting in black & white and slowly taught himself the medium.

His first oil painting series, Gray Area, is archived in Alien Alley Art Gallery under his former pseudonym, Nomar Garcia. The paintings are not for sale and remain a source of inspiration for future work. After unsuccessful attempts at displaying his work in the local Houston art scene, Art Ramon took an extended hiatus from artistic endeavors to fully concentrate on his alternate careers.

Emerging from a 16-year hiatus, Art Ramon restarted oil painting and drawing and explored new artistic styles in pursuit of creative challenges, which gave rise to Southwest Surreal™ and Arid Abstract™. Art Ramon now seeks to make Neo-Southwestern™ an art movement birthed in Tucson, slowly branching outwards through the entire Southwestern Art world and beyond.

Art Ramon currently exhibits many of his recent works year-round at Solar Culture Gallery.

Art Ramon, as Director of Visual Art for the US Transhumanist Party, has also championed the use of sign language by leveraging our current global communications to create a Universal Sign Language, which would serve as a fallback language in the future when technological telepathy is the norm and spoken languages become obsolete.

Art Ramon has also co-authored a book as a member of the OmniFuturists, titled Future Visions, in which, in his chapter, he explores ideas on using the arts to redirect human purpose during the economic singularity.


Education

2015: American Sign Language, Pima Community College

2008: B.A. in Computer Science with English minor, Washington State University

1998: Real Estate A.A.S, San Jacinto Community College

1994: Hydraulics “C” School, U.S. Navy

1991: Machinist Mate “A” School, U.S. Navy

1990: High School Diploma, North Shore Senior H.S.

Exhibitions

2024, The Exotic Sublime | Treading Softly, Tohono Chul Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2015 – 2024, Solar Culture Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2023 – 2024, Tucson Erotica Art Show, South Tucson TEAS Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2024, Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, Tucson, AZ

2023, East Hive Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2021, Día de los Muertos Art Exhibit – A Celebration of Souls, Steinfeld Warehouse Community Arts Center, Tucson, AZ

2019 – 2020, Tucson Erotica Art Show, The Sculpture Resource Center, Tucson, AZ

2020, Galeria Mitotera, Tucson, AZ

2019, Monswoon: Live at the KAT Club, Kinetic Arts Tucson, Tucson, AZ

2015 – 2019, Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery and Workshop, Tucson, AZ

2017, Phoenix Comicon, Phoenix, AZ

2015 – 2016, The Drawing Studio, Tucson, AZ

2016, Xpanded Universe, Tucson, AZ

Improv

2017, Improv 101, Unscrewed Theater, Tucson, AZ