Gustavo Ramos (artist)

Gustavo Ramos (born 1993) is a Brazilian-American fine artist and oil painter. He initially gained recognition for painting a series of realistic portraits that went on to receive national and international awards. In 2020, he was a featured artist at the Springville Museum of Art, where one of his paintings was acquired for the museum's permanent collection.^[1] In 2022, he was selected as a winner of Royal Talens' The Year of Rembrandt Award, when his work was displayed in the Rijksmuseum.^[2] Ramos' notable portrait commissions include Puerto Rican independence leader Pedro Albizu Campos for the Harvard Club of New York City^[3] and Irish novelist James Joyce for The Atlantic.^[4]

Gustavo Ramos was born in 1993^[5] in the country of Brazil. At the age of 15, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona.^[6] Not being fluent in the English language, he turned his attention to facial expressions and bodily gestures which precipitated his interest in portrait drawing and painting.^[7] He went on to study oil painting at Southern Virginia University where he earned his bachelor's degree in 2017.^[6] In that same year, he was the recipient of the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Foundation Fine Art Award.^[8] He later attended the Florence Academy of Art.^[6]

While Ramos was still in college, he created several self-portrait drawings as he studied the techniques of the old masters.^[9] In 2020, one of his self-portraits from this period was featured on the cover of The Artist's Magazine's "The Best of Drawing,"^[10] earning him nationwide recognition.

After finishing his studies in 2018, Ramos created a series of realistic portrait paintings with a focus on psychological narratives that would go on to be featured in publications like The Artist's Magazine,^[7] Fine Art Connoisseur,^[5] BuzzFeed^[11] and Southwest Art which included him in "21 Under 31: Young Artists to Buy Now".^[12] In 2019, Ramos was accepted into the Art Renewal Center 13th Annual Salon, with his selected painting receiving a Staff Award^[13] and travelling to Sotheby's and the European Museum of Modern Art.^[14] In 2021, Ramos earned his place as a finalist in the Boynes Emerging Artist Award.^[15]

In 2022, Ramos was selected by Royal Talens as the artist to represent North America in The Year of Rembrandt,^[2] where he was awarded a trip to the Netherlands and the opportunity to display his work at the Rijksmuseum alongside the 6 other winning artists.^[2]

In 2024, Ramos was included into the Lunar Codex,^[16] a time capsule launched to the Moon named the most expansive, international, and diverse collection of contemporary culture launched into space.^[17] His selected painting "Winter" was published in Veja Magazine,^[18] Brazil's most influential outlet of printed media, as part of an article covering the Lunar Codex.^[19]

In 2025, Ramos was commissioned to paint a formal portrait of Puerto Rican attorney and independence activist Pedro Albizu Campos, which was unveiled at the Harvard Club of New York City for permanent display.^[3] Also in 2025, the portrait of Irish novelist James Joyce by Ramos was featured in The Atlantic magazine’s July issue accompanying a review of Joyce and his biographer Richard Ellmann.^[4]

Ramos has most recently stepped into educational roles, including teaching workshops at the Scottsdale Artists School,^[20] Art Fest Mesa,^[21] being a guest lecturer for Artists Magazine,^[22] and releasing an online drawing course with Domestika.^[23]