Raymond Argumedo

October 22, 2023

Meet Visual Artist Raymond Argumedo

Images courtesy of Raymond Argumedo

Q: Who are you and where are you from?

A: My name is Raymond Argumedo. I am Artist/Illustrator from Riverside, Ca.

Q: How would you describe your style of art?

A: I say I fall into “pop surrealism” or low brow art. My work is influenced by ancient culture//folk tales and flapper girls

Q: You recently closed the doors to your gallery Gramercy Art Gallery in Riverside. Tell us about that and where you are now without the pressures of Gallery life

A: Yes, so we celebrated our 2 year anniversary in July and announced in august that we would be closing. The sudden decision to close started with some miscommunication with the landlord and we didn’t feel comfortable moving forward with the gallery space. We instantly started looking for a new space but nothing felt right and started to realize maybe it would be best to take a break on the gallery and focus on my personal work and start new ideas.

Q: What has been your favorite piece you have painted and why?

A: Hmm one of my favorite art pieces has to be a mural I did out in Roseburg, Oregon. I was commissioned to design an awesome “Nature Goddess” for a winery and I was able to bring out my whole family and my two dogs and it was an amazing experience.

Q: Where has been your favorite place to show and why?

A: I haven’t shown work in many galleries but I would say my favorite place would be a convention called Designer Con that takes place in Anaheim, Ca at the end of the year. What makes being a vendor at Dcon great is the community of artist you get to be a part of and possibility of you even getting a chance to set up next to an artist you might look up to or have admired growing up.

Q: I am always interested in the process of how people paint. Music or movies/shows while you paint or is there something you prefer to do while you are painting?

A: I usually like to listen to instrumental music or I will throw on a season of MadMen.

Q: Your murals are extraordinary. How did you learn how to paint large scale and do you prefer that to smaller scale pieces?

A: Well the whole mural thing is really new still. I had an awesome conversation with an artist I look up and told me “do what you have to do to get the mural done” so this was regarding creating a stencil or using a projector to get the mural done. I always felt like that was “cheating” but using a projector has been my go to ever since. I truly enjoy doing both small pieces and large murals no preference at all.

Q: Who have been your artistic influences?

A: Growing up when I was in high school in 2003 I discovered Juxtapoz magazine and found artist like Jeff Soto, Jeremy Fish, Craola & Shepard Fairey as my early influences to the lowbrow art scene.

Q: As a Gallery owner and actual artist, do you have any advice for artists trying to show at galleries?

A: I would recommend any artist to research galleries before trying to submit to them. Find a gallery that is already showing similar work and has an aesthetic that you really respect.

Q: What is your purpose in this lifetime?

A: I’ve been lucky enough to be able to be an artist and finally making a name for myself, so I would say my purpose is to keep producing work and really let the art world see what I’m capable of producing. Sometimes it feels that the gallery closed for this purpose, to finally focus on my art career one hundred percent.

Q: I ask this in all my interviews- What is something you wish I had asked as an interviewer and answer please :)

A: I guess a good question would be “who are your top 3 favorite living artist right now.” My answer would be Tristan Eaton, Michael Reeder and Mark Maggiori.

You can follow Raymond on instagram : @raymond.argumedo

https://gramercyartgallery.com/