11 Facts About Mel Ramos

Melvin John Ramos was an American figurative painter, specializing most often in paintings of female nudes, whose work incorporates elements of realist and abstract art.

Mel Ramos attended Sacramento Junior College and San Jose State College.

From 1958 to 1966, Mel Ramos taught art at Elk Grove High School and Mira Loma High School in Sacramento.

Mel Ramos was Artist in Residence at Syracuse University and the University of Wisconsin.

In 1955, Mel Ramos married Leta Mel Ramos, who was the model for many of his early nude paintings.

Mel Ramos received his first important recognition in the early 1960s; since 1959 he has participated in more than 150 solo and 120 group shows.

Mel Ramos's paintings have been shown in major exhibitions of pop art in the US and in Europe and reproduced in books, catalogs, and periodicals throughout the world.

In 2009, Mel Ramos was part of the first Portuguese American bilingual art book and exhibit in California "Ashes to Life a Portuguese American Story in Art" with fellow artists Nathan Oliveira, John Mattos and Joao de Brito.

Mel Ramos was represented by the Louis K Meisel Gallery since 1971.

Mel Ramos has been represented for many years by San Francisco's Modernism gallery, Galerie Ernst Hilger, Austria and Burkhard Eikelmann Gallery.

Mel Ramos died of heart failure on October 14,2018, at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California.