Gaby Hurtado-Ramos is from Houston, Texas and graduated with a BA in Studio Art from Oberlin College in 2016. Shortly after, they moved to Tucson, Arizona to be involved with local efforts in immigration justice. A few years later, Gaby lived in Providence, Rhode Island at the Dirt Palace, a feminist collective arts space. In 2020 Gaby returned to Houston and was a member of Burning Bones Press and subsequently an artist-in-residence at The Printing Museum. There they made letterpress and risograph prints and later continued as a studio member and workshop instructor. While in Houston, Gaby also taught studio art classes at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Gaby’s work has been exhibited in print and zine expos, festivals, and galleries. Their illustration work has been commissioned by ProPublica, the Highlander Research and Education Center, and the Tucson Jewish Museum.

Artist Statement

I make prints, drawings, and books that imagine scenes of queer intimacy in social sites of contact. My work comes from a place of nostalgia and yearning for the beauty and mess of utopic spaces. I create figurative and text-based narratives referencing the interwoven drama and joy found in alternative spaces of the past, present and future. These scenes are based off of archival images and history of queer social spaces, along with the experiences of contemporary collective projects, parties, and gay bars.

Self-publishing and zines are crucial to me because they break down the barriers between fine art and everyday people. In both my zines and prints, my style of drawing is based in quick gestural captures and then develops into more rendered values through layered methods. I combine my drawings with found image and text to tell a fragmented story. Through these varied approaches in print I engage with the cracks and glimmers of queer social space.