Richard “Ricky” Armendariz was born in El Paso, Texas. He received his BFA from The University of Texas at San Antonio in 1995 and MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1999. In 2008, he received the Artpace Supplemental Travel Grant for travel to Mexico City, Mexico, and in 2013 he was selected to participate as an artist in residence Berlin Residency Program by Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum in partnership with Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.

Being raised on the U.S.-Mexico border heavily influences his artistic, aesthetic and conceptual ideas. Images that have cultural, biographical and art historical references are carved and burned into the surface of his paintings, drawings, and prints. “Growing up in El Paso, Texas with Juarez, Mexico in my backyard, I was saturated with a mix of romanticism for the new and old West, American culture, and the iconography of my ancestral past. I am influenced by the mystique of the border region, including mesas, honky-tonks and big skies reaching as far as the eye can see.” – Ricky Armendariz

Armendariz’s artworks can be found in museum collections, including, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; and Ruby City, San Antonio, TX.