Paul Ramírez Jonas was born in Pomona, California and raised in Honduras. He currently lives and works in Ithaca NY.
Since the 1990s, Ramirez Jonas has sought to challenge the relationship between artist, viewer, and artwork. Through his practice he seeks to challenge the definitions of art and the public and to engineer active audience participation and exchange.
Selected solo exhibitions include Museo Jumex, Mexico City; The New Museum, NYC; Pinacoteca do Estado, Sao Paulo; The Aldrich Contemporary Museum, Connecticut; The Blanton Museum, Texas; a survey at Ikon Gallery (UK) and Cornerhouse (UK) in 2004, and a 25 year survey at the Contemporary Art Museum Houston in 2017. Selected group exhibitions at P.S.1; the Brooklyn Museum; The Whitechapel (UK); Irish Museum of Modern Art (Ireland); and Kunsthaus Zurich. He participated in the 1st Johannesburg Biennale; 1st Seoul Biennial; 6th Shanghai Biennial; 28th Sao Paulo Biennial; 53rd Venice Biennial and 7th and 10th Bienal do Mercosul. In 2010 his Key to the City project was presented by Creative Time in cooperation with the City of New York and in 2022 with Fierce and Birmingham 2022 Festival in Birmingham, UK. In 2016 his Public Trust project was presented by Now & There in Boston. He is a Professor and Art Department Chair, at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University.
Let Freedom Ring, his large-scale participatory monument, was installed in the National Mall in Washington DC in the summer of 2023 and will be installed in Philadelphia in 2026. Public Trust (2016) continues to be presented every year.