About Ricardo Jimènez

Ricardo Jiménez was born and raised in San Jose, California. He was exposed to art and music at an early age by his father and uncle. After serving in the United States Marine Corp, Jiménez pursued a bachelor of arts degree and a secondary teaching credential from San Jose State University. Over the next 21 years, Jiménez taught as an instructor of painting, sculpture, and ceramics for the Santa Clara County Office of Education, teaching students at risk. As a member of the Santa Clara County Art Committee, he advised on art and film curricula and taught workshops for teachers in elementary and secondary art education. During these years, Jiménez pursued painting, drawing, and sculpture, gaining inspiration from his extensive travels through Mexico and Europe. He also worked as a commissioned photographer for Winnebago Industries. His photographs have been published in national periodicals. Taking a sabbatical from teaching in 1974, Jiménez spent the year photographing art and artists in all forms, from indigenous communities to art institutes throughout California, the Midwest, Mexico, and Europe.

In 1997, Jiménez completed a Master of Arts Degree in Studio Painting with an emphasis on abstract expressionism from California State University, Fresno. During his graduate study, he put on three one-man shows of his own work, including his Master’s Exhibit, Obras de mi Alma (Artworks of my Soul). He also wrote a manuscript entitled Carlos Licon ––– His Life and Art (copyright 1997) which has been solicited by several interested publishers. He was also curator of an exhibition in 1994 at the Phebe Conley Art Gallery of California State University, Fresno in honor of the late artist/friend Carlos Licon. The exhibit entitled Carlos Licon . . . Retrospective del Artista showcased 52 of Licon’s works gathered from private collections.

Jiménez has been developing an international reputation since 1997 as his work continues to gain momentum through exposure in exhibitions and privately commissioned pieces in Europe, the U.S., and Mexico. His work has been solicited by a curator at the New York Guggenheim Museum, who he met at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain. Through the late 1990s Jiménez’s art was included in the Huntington Lake Art Exhibition at CSU, Fresno, the Art and Flowers exhibition at Santa Clara University’s de Saisset Museum , and an exhibition at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Foundation in San Francisco. Jiménez also worked with a Bay Area architectural firm to create eight commissioned mixed-media paintings for A. P. Stump’s, a four-star restaurant in downtown San Jose, California. In addition, Andy Pavicich is the largest sole collector of his work, he recently purchased four new paintings, one of which he commissioned for his Seascape home because his love of the ocean is captured in all of them. More recently, in August 2007, Jiménez was pursed by a leading pharmaceutical representative who purchased two large commissioned pieces for his contemporary Santa Cruz home.

The private as well as the public connoisseurs value Jiménez’s extreme artistic unique-ness. In 1999, Jiménez presented a solo show of his recent abstract expressionist mixed-media work entitled Espiritu del Pacifico (Spirit of the Pacific) at the Encore Café located in Morgan Hill, California. In 2000, Jiménez was awarded  first prize in the Fantasy and Magic exhibition at the Arte Americas Gallery in Fresno, California. His signature piece entitled Giverny toured in the eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art.

The exhibition opened in San Francisco, California where Jiménez won The Board of Councilors Award, purple ribbon and a monetary award. The show continued touring to the Smithsonian Institute of Art in Washington, D.C., the Millennium Art Center and the lobby of the United Nations in New York, among other galleries in Chicago and Philadelphia. In 2000-01, his work was displayed at the Connoisseur Gallery of Carmel and the Marco Polo Gallery in Carmel, California. In 2005-06, he exhibited his mixed-media work in La Coronela Contemporary Gallery, located at Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

In October 2007, Jiménez will exhibit his photograph Discovery at the Abilities Arts Festival, an international juried photographic exhibition held at the Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has also been invited by chef and restaurant owner Josiah Slone to exhibit 42 mixed-media paintings at Sent Soví, a four-star restaurant in Saratoga, California, from November 2007 through April 2008.

Two of Jiménez’s pieces, Yo Soy Ricardo (I am Ricardo), a mixed-media self portrait, and El Viego y Su Muleta (The Old Man and His Crutch), a photograph, have recently been accepted for inclusion in the 2008 tour of eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art. The exhibit will open with a reception at the Moscone Center in San Francisco in March 2008 before traveling to Chicago and other venues (dates to be announced).

Jiménez spends his time continuing his investigation of color through abstract expression-ism as he incorporates the Plein Aire (outdoor) painting techniques invented by the French. He paints small and large works and commissioned paintings in his main studio in Biola, California and his southern studio in Borrego Springs, California. He has also has been exhibiting his drawings and photography images. Jiménez recently sold 20 mixed-media paintings in various sizes to a leading eight doctor medical specialist group in the Monterey-Carmel area. These paintings can be seen by appointment by contacting the artist at 559-240-2301.