JOSE RAMON LERMA
(1887-1977)
Mendocino Storm, 1957
Oil on canvas
50 x 24 inches
José Ramón Lerma was born in 1930 in the Salinas Valley, California. He came to San Francisco in 1950 and was one of the first Latino students to study at the California School of Fine Arts, now SFAI. Lerma was soon drafted into the Intelligence Division of the U.S. Army at the start of the Korean War. He was stationed close to the front and his experiences there transformed him as a person and as an artist.
Lerma returned to San Francisco and the San Francisco Art Institute to resume his studies in the mid 50’s studying under Jean Varda, Nathan Oliveira and Edward Corbett. He immersed himself in the San Francisco that was the home of Beat Culture and an important center for Abstract Expressionism.
Lerma was integral to the burgeoning gallery scene in San Francisco in the early 60’s having solo exhibitions at seminal gallery spaces the East-West Gallery, The Cellar, Spatsa Gallery, Russian Hill Gallery. He went on to participate in numerous group exhibitions including the Oakland Museum, The San Francisco Museum of Art, The Sonoma County Museum, Galeria de la Raza, Gallery Sanchez, Somar Gallery, Mission Cultural Center, Richmond Art Center.
Lerma’s work has also been exhibited nationally including the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Albuquerque, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Evergreen State College, and Tuscon Museum of the Arts. Lerma lives and works in Oakland, CA.
INQUIRE