Ricardo Ruiz (b.1992, Corpus Christi,TX) is an artist and publisher based in Richmond, Virginia, where he completed his MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University . He is a Latinx artist whose work synthesizes Indigenous folklore and ecological practices as a foundation to discuss colonialism in the Americas. Grounded in research, personal memoir, and the philosophical teachings of Curanderísmo (Mexican faith healing), Ricardo initiates a conversation as to how healing manifests in the 21th century.
His studio practice is rooted in drawing and explores modes of painting, printmaking, and different methods and genres of storytelling to explore themes of the human condition. Ricardo's intention is to make images that access past, present, and future timelines to generate new stories of metaphysical reconciliation.
His images explore characters located in a distant future whose culture mirrors Indigenous groups from the Americas. Each work peers into their day to day which is intrinsically linked to the natural world and its systems. I pull from a lexicon of characters from my personal lived experiences and research practice. Topics of his research include the anthropological history of Indigenous groups in the Americas and scientific phenomena related to biodiversity.
Ricardo continues a visual storytelling tradition shared to him by his father, Ricardo Ruiz the Elder, whose paintings document the history and folkloric wonders of the South Texas landscape.
He has attended numerous residencies and has been awarded multiple fellowships from institutions such as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2020). His artwork is included in public and private institutions, with published works in the collections of the Whitney and LACMA. His most recent exhibition was at Nail Salon in Brooklyn,NY (2025).