about

David Ramirez Cuen (1995) is a multidisciplinary artist from Culiacán. He studied Genomic Biotechnology and Visual Arts at the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa. Working primarily through figurative painting, his practice explores the tensions between consciousness, biological inheritance, culture, and the environments that shape human behavior and perception.

Through the use of objects, animals, landscapes, and people from his immediate surroundings, David constructs his studies and compositions, grounding his subjects in issues and dynamics that have become almost naturalized within his local context, everyday experiences, and academic background in both the arts and genomic sciences. Almost inevitably, he establishes connections between these elements, always seeking to develop specific narratives or themes through compositions deliberately conceived to possess aesthetic value.

His artistic practice is shaped by research methodologies rooted in his academic training in Genomic Sciences. Drawing from approaches commonly associated with scientific inquiry, he engages in documentation, literature review, comparative analysis, and the correlation of social, political, cultural, and psychological phenomena. Through this process, he identifies patterns, tensions, and intersections that later take form as symbolic visual structures. Rather than serving as illustrations of predetermined concepts, his works emerge from the investigation itself, functioning as visual hypotheses that examine the relationships between seemingly unrelated factors.

His paintings inquire into the degree to which human decisions and desires emerge from individual agency or from systems of conditioning that precede conscious thought. More specifically, his work examines how individuals internalize external structures, reinterpret them through symbolic frameworks, and attempt to preserve a margin of agency within environments that continuously shape their perceptions, behaviors, and desires.

Rather than proposing deterministic conclusions, his work seeks to reveal possible correlations between factors that often appear disconnected, exploring the fragile space between predisposition and responsibility. Recurring themes within his practice include perception as a filter, the Freudian unconscious, language as a biological process, historical memory, and the relationship between natural systems and human experience.

Painting becomes both a method of inquiry and a vital necessity: a space where science, culture, and subjective experience converge through image-making.

JOSE DAVID RAMÍREZ CUÉN

1995 — Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
Visual Artist

EDUCATION

2017–2020
Studies toward a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts
Faculty of Arts, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa

2013–2017
Bachelor’s Degree in Genomic Science
Faculty of Chemical Biological Sciences, Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa

TECHNICAL TRAINING

2014–2020
Painting workshop training under Sinaloan visual artist Miguel Ángel Sainz González, serving as both workshop assistant and instructor.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2026
THE MEAM HALL (Group Exhibition), Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze (TIAC), Florence, Italy.

2025
THE MEAM HALL (Group Exhibition), Museu Europeu d'Art Modern (MEAM), Barcelona, Spain. 

2025
PECDA* 2024 Final Project Exhibition of Grant Recipients – Mixed-media drawing project on violence against journalism, GAALS (Antonio López Sáenz Gallery), Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

2024

Single artwork exhibition and artist talk, Instituto Chapultepec Sur, Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico. 

2023
PECDA* 2022 State Exhibition of Grant Recipients – Painting series, ISIC Museum of Modern Art, Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

2020
Selected for the Antonio López Sáenz Visual Arts Biennial (Group Exhibition), Mazatlan Carnival 2020, Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

2019
Morphology Visual (Group Exhibition), PEIS Gallery, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Culiacan Campus, Sinaloa, Mexico.

2016
Participation in the Third Bienal de Artes Plásticas El Guayabo, Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

2026
*PECDA Sinaloa, Painting Specialty, Selected Artist, New Project in Development.

2024
*PECDA Sinaloa, Drawing Specialty, Selected Artist. Support for a series of drawings addressing violence against journalism.

2022
*PECDA Sinaloa, Painting Specialty, Selected Artist. Support for the development of a series of figurative paintings exploring the relationship between biological inheritance,

consciousness, and agency. 

2020
First Prize, Peace in Culiacán public art competition. Cement-cast sculpture permanently installed at Parque Las Riberas.

COLLECTIONS

Works held in private collections in Mexico, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

*PECDA Program for the Promotion of Artistic Creation and Development, a federal and state-funded cultural grant initiative in Mexico.