We were lucky to catch up with Sandra Ramos recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sandra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
For 30 years, my artwork has aimed to create a visually significant and meaningful participatory experience for audiences worldwide. In my installations, paintings, prints, and animations, I highlight the relationship between the historical, economic, and sociopolitical contexts that provoke migratory waves affecting the world, demonstrating how these circumstances impact and reshape individuals’ destinies.
“90 miles” is a photographic light box installation I keep close to my heart as one of my most consequential pieces due to its artistic and personal impact on my career and life. I created it in 2011 during an art residency at Fountainhead Miami, and the process of fabricating this piece reconnects me with my partner, with whom I haven’t been in contact since he left Cuba 20 years prior. This piece also marks a point where I decided to emigrate with my 12-year-old daughter to Miami, where I have been establishing myself since 2013.
“90 miles” consists of a meticulously crafted acrylic and aluminum bridge measuring 2000 x 50 x 80 cm, designed to offer participants a unique walking experience through the perilous waters of the Florida stretch. Through its detachable design, the installation showcases light boxes containing 12 photographs depicting aerial views of the Caribbean Sea along the Havana-Miami route or vice versa.
The piece traveled from Miami to Havana during Obama’s opening of US-Cuban relations. It was shown at the National Museum of Fine Arts in 2012 as part of the 11th Havana Biennial. It continued to develop and has been exhibited in various cities and contexts, such as Miami, Key West, Tampa, and the Venice Biennale in 2013. It was presented as a deconstructed, separated bridge; people couldn’t climb on it, as part of the Illuminated Coral Gables Public Art Project in 2021, provoking the censorship of the Republican city mayor during Trump’s first presidency.
The ’90 Miles’ installation serves as a powerful metaphor for emigration. As the viewer ‘climbs’ over this bridge, they symbolically unite the two extremes of complex socio-political geography that have defined Cuban-American relations for the past six decades. This metaphorical journey fosters understanding and advocates for a better future of justice, freedom, unity, and respect for all immigrants worldwide.
https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/havana-biennial-61285/ https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/06/11/discovering-the-sights-and-sites-of-the-havana-biennial/
The Cuban Pavilion at Venice, Part 2: Tonel and Sandra Ramos
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/arts/illuminate-coral-gables-miami-public-art-project-falls-victim-to-red-scare-12669781
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a professional multimedia visual artist born in Cuba in 1969. At 12, I began studying fine arts at the Elementary Art School in Havana, continuing my studies in printmaking for several years at San Alejandro Academy. In 1993, I graduated from ISA, the Higher Institute of Arts of Cuba, where I taught for several years after graduation. I also completed an MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2021; I am currently an art professor at FIU Miami.
My artwork is deeply personal yet socially relevant. I draw inspiration from my Cuban roots to explore identity, gender, migration, social justice, and ecology. Through my art, I aim to communicate with a broad audience and encourage critical thinking about our world’s leading issues.
I constantly explore new media and techniques to express my ideas. I work with installation, video, painting, engraving, photography, and drawing. Recently, I have been drawn to the tactile nature of clay, wood, and metal materials while exploring sculpture and ceramics. I enjoy experimenting with different textures and forms. I also incorporate digital media, light, and animation into my work, using technology to create immersive installations and interactive experiences.
My art reflects on the power dynamics that have shaped history and continue to affect contemporary society. I also explore the relationship between the private and public spheres, exposing the political disillusionment and polarization that mark our current reality. My work bridges ideas, people, and epochs, promoting tolerance, understanding, and hope. I invite viewers to question their assumptions and engage more thoughtfully and productively with their communities. Ultimately, my art is a testament to the power of creativity to connect us to a more significant human experience.
Since 1993, I have been developing my artistic language and showcasing my projects in museums and galleries worldwide. I exhibited for many years at Nina Menocal Gallery in Mexico City, Promo Arte Gallery in Tokyo, Panamerican Art Projects in Miami, and Accola Griefen Gallery in New York. My work has been collected by prestigious museums such as MoMA NY, MFA Boston, The San Diego Museum of Art, PAMM Miami, Harvard Museums, National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, The Bronx Museum, ASU Museum, The Ludwig Forum Aachen, TBA21 Vienna, and Fuchu Art Museum in Tokyo.
My Art Studio is located at The Bakehouse Art Complex in Wynwood, where I can be part of a thriving artistic community while continuing to develop my practice. Among my recent exhibitions are: “Impossible Dialogues” at PAAP Miami (2024); “Entropydoscopes” at the Lowe Art Museum UM (2023); “Both Sides Now” DORCLAS Harvard 2022 -2023. Navigating the Waves, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Sep 25, 2024- August 3, 2025. Migration Stories, Phoenix Art Museum, 2023. What We Leave Behind, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, 2023; You Know Who You Are: Recent Acquisitions of Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, El Espacio 23, Miami, 2022; On the Horizon: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, 2022. Invisible Exhibition, ART Yard, Frenchtown, NJ 2022.
SANDRA RAMOS ART PROJECTS LLC
https://www.sandraramosart.com
https://linktr.ee/sandraramosart
@sandraramosart
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Art is a distinctive creative process that involves feeling, learning, and communicating. It enables us to connect with our natural and social environments and our past, present, and future in a sensitive and mysterious way—an experience unique to humans.
Governments and society should recognize and support the arts and artists more efficiently, both legally and economically, due to the critical role that visual arts, music, theater, movies, dance, literature, and all artistic activities play in maintaining our personal and social lives—keeping them safe, functional, beautiful, and blissful—since all art forms provide various levels of community service. Art allows us to grow as a society and become better humans by imagining, expressing, and critically engaging with our reality from an essentially pro-creative perspective. The experiences that the arts provide are unique and marvelous, and we cannot take them for granted. Art and education are closely related because a comprehensive educational system should include art production and appreciation at all levels to form open-minded, sensitive, and informed individuals. We should not approach art as a commodity because art is much more than that; it transcends time and geography, and its value is measured beyond money.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My work explores historical power dynamics and their impact on today’s society through visual narratives, irony, humor, and art historical references. It shows the clash between private and public realms, unveiling the roots of political disillusionment. Themes of identity, gender, migration, social justice, and ecology are central to my art, which touches on personal and universal issues.
I aim to reach a diverse audience and prompt critical thinking on global issues. I create immersive installations that engage viewers’ practice and perceptions by experimenting with textures and forms using clay, wood, metal, digital media, light, and animation.
Central to my artistic vision is to provoke viewers to challenge their assumptions and engage more deeply and conscientiously with their context and communities. I firmly believe in the transformative power of art and creativity to inspire and connect us to a shared human experience. I hope my work serves as a testament to this certainty.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sandraramosart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandraramosart/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandraramosart/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandra-ramos-29778644/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpHc5Hv1Mvv_5xDLl3y6GJA
Image Credits
Sandra Ramos portrait by Evelyn Sosa . 2025
Sandra Ramos. 90 Miles. 2011 Interactive Installation, photos, light boxes & aluminum. 23” x 35” x 354”.
Sandra Ramos. Transitory Identities. 2013 Light Box Installation. 2 pieces. 98” x 27”
Sandra Ramos. Dragonfly. 2024. Aluminum Engraving and Cutting Sculpture. 13’ x 9’ x 3’. https://maps.app.goo.gl/MfVVdeLGETTK1K1Q9
Sandra Ramos. Entropydoscopes. 2023. Video Installation & Lightboxes. Variable dimensions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1pbsjsrPAk
Sandra Ramos. Miami – Spring. 2023. Mixed Media. Acrylic painting, charcoal digital print/canvas 80”x40”
Sandra Ramos.Impossible Dialogues: Sumerian Disputations. (Installation view).2024- 2021. Video Installation: 140 clay ceramic pieces, charcoal,/ wood, cellphone, laptop cover + two-channel video. Variable dimensions, room size.
Sandra Ramos.Hopscotch Cosmogony. Interactive-Painting Installation. 10’ x 25’. 2023