Somos
Somosnew work by Ramiro Davaro-Comas
Exhibition Dates: May 23rd – June 20th, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 23rd 5-8pm
Location: The O+ Exchange Gallery/Art O+, 334 Wall St, Kingston, NY
Gallery Hours: Thurs-Sat 12-6pm or by appt
O+ is honored to present Somos, featuring recent work by Hudson Valley based artist Ramiro Davaro-Comas. In his distinct style, combining the visual language of street art, studio painting and skateboard culture, Davaro-Comas unfailingly imbues his compositions with relatability, humanity and wonder. Through active mark-making and his playful palette, the illustrative figures of Somos are presented in scenes of working families that draw forth associations with American Regionalist painting, Los Tres Grandes in Mexico and WPA photographs of the early 20th century while making the viewer recall their family’s Kodak pictures of the 1970’s and 80’s.
Somos, “we are,” reminds us that the story of America is one of migration and that we see–throughout our history and into the present moment–the movement of families, of all identities and resources, as they seek to build better futures for their children.
ARTIST STATEMENT
This deeply personal series, “Somos”, depicts families in moments of solitude, work, play and immense transition, maintaining their physical closeness as they exist through a variety of surreal landscapes. The works are inspired by photographs in news articles, family portraits and historical photography catalogs. They contain immigrant families, laborers, and American born workers in the same series bridging the groups and showcasing the many commonalities that they share. The protagonists are painted with happy and hopeful demeanors in an illustrative style that creates accessibility to a wide range of audiences and invites them to rethink the family, the immigrant and the American worker narrative.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ramiro Davaro-Comas is an Argentine/American artist, muralist and art educator.
His work revolves around different parts of his identity and the lived experience he has through each one. He is interested in creating narrative works that connect with broad audiences through themes that revolve around children’s mark making, the culture of skateboarding and stories of immigrant families–all passions of his and part of his own character.
Through his community centered public art practice, he has painted over 300 murals and managed another 150 mural installations for other artists over 16+ years. Davaro-Comas is also co-director of Super-Stories, an organization he launched with artist Grace Lang, that focuses on arts education and large scale mural projects. The mural work created through Super-Stories focuses on centering students and community members in every aspect of the work. He is passionate about creating murals that are based on student/community artwork that he obtains from brainstorming and drawing workshops and has worked with over 10,000 students and community members in the past 3 years.
Davaro-Comas splits his time between his studio practice and his public art work; consulting on public art projects, painting private commissioned murals, and creating work for gallery exhibitions. When he isn’t making art, Ramiro spends his time building things, skateboarding and raising his son Otis.
You can see Ramiro Davaro-Comas’s work, and learn more about Super-Stories, at www.ramirostudios.com
The O+ Exchange Gallery is an exhibition and performance space located within the organization’s home base. The gallery prioritizes performances and exhibitions by O+ alumni and other artists working throughout the Hudson Valley as a way to provide them with opportunities to share their work with the public as a pathway to healthcare access through O+’s distinct exchange-based model of care.
Art O+n Wall is a distinct project space located at the corner of Wall and N. Front Streets in storefront of The O+ Exchange in the historic Uptown Kingston neighborhood. Encased by glass windows on three sides, this space offers a site-specific, highly visible, distinct container for the exhibition and/or development of new work with an emphasis on sculpture, installation, time-based media and performance by Hudson Valley artists.