Galo Ramirez: artist extraordinaire

Galo posing with a 15 ft. painting he worked on in Cancun

Galo Ramirez is an old soul. He is also an incredible artist. Like a Renaissance man, he is a professional in many mediums - paintings, murals and statues for starters. He has worked in Cozumel for years and had many exhibitions on the island and elsewhere. Even though he is from Mexico City, he is a true Cozumeleño. Laid back, sincere and with a charismatic personality, it is impossible not to like him. I think he is terrific. I consider him not only an artist I like to work with, but a real friend.

Galo has a studio in his home at the corner of 25 and 1 South. Whenever the door is open, it signifies you are welcome to go in. He greets you with a handshake as if he has always known you, offers tea or a more adult beverage. He shows you with enthusiasm what he has in his showroom, but that is only the beginning. He also displays many of his works elsewhere. We have dressed models with his paintings. I especially love what he did with the Penthouse in Palmar Condominiums. I also have his paintings on the walls in our showroom, The Magic of Design.

Palmar penthouse model with contemporary art from Galo

Hall piece in waterfront condo

He has worked with clients of ours to finish the decoration of their condos. For example with our clients, Dr. Lourell and Lynda Sutliff, - once the furniture was in place, he went to meet them and together they chose five paintings that complement the interior furnishings. They are terrific.

Sutliff painting to complement the furniture

Jazz series painting that coordinates with the room

For Kandy Stahl and Chuck Long, they had some of his paintings in their home in the states they brought down. They also added more once they arrived to live here full-time. Kandy and Chuck are collectors of art and artifacts from many local artists. More about some of their other pieces in another post!

One of the most exciting projects I worked on with Galo was a painting five meters wide (about 15 feet) for a client of ours in Cancun. I worked on the furniture with the owners and we picked a beautiful, bright geometric print fabric from Germany for the accent pillows. This fabric then became the theme of the project. (I will try to dig up the sample to add here at some point.)

There were chocolate sofas, cream leather chairs, dark chocolate woods and red accent chairs. The geometric print worked to tie it all together. Sandy and Luis, the owners of the new 5,000 sq. ft. home, met with Galo and me to discuss their wall painting. They wanted it to be special. The couple flew from Cancun for the day and we visited the exhibition that Galo had at the Casa de la Cultura, some paintings he had at Playa Azul hotel and his studio. Luis loves jazz and Galo discovered this in conversation, and Galo has a jazz series of paintings that are super popular and impressive. 


From that, Luis and Galo met a few times to come up with the concept of the painting. I wanted a diptych or a triptych (split it up in to 2 or 3 paintings that flowed from one to the other,) but Luis insisted it be in one piece. This was a challenge as how would we get the painting to Cancun and in to the house? In the end, Galo actually built the frame in the living room and painted it on site. He spent six weeks in Cancun working on the painting.

Here it is in progress:

Work in progress

Here is the final product with Galo and the proud owners! You can see the scale of the piece. It is really incredible!

Final piece créme de la créme

 Galo's work can be found on his facebook page, click here