Selected Reviews and Quotes
“Her work might be best described as contemporary mixed media in a folk art tradition…Enchanting and clever as they are, Otto’s pieces are also purposeful and intellectually challenging. They invite us to think-‐really think-‐about big ideas: love, justice, spirituality, patriotism, culture. There is subtle social commentary and occasional sharp irony, but it’s always delivered in a playful way, with heartfelt optimism…objects to boggle the mind, melt the heart, and drop the jaw…” -‐Joyce Lovelace, contributing editor of American Craft Magazine
“One of the great joys of going over to Ramona’s studio is that I know I will laugh. And in this cynical world, we need all the smiles we can get. Ramona crosses that beautifully thin line between ‘folk’ and ‘now’. And, yes she’s always been one of the ‘now’ artists.” -‐Graham Nash, singer, songwriter, photographer, artist, producer, activist
“Otto has established herself as a contemporary sculptor working in Los Angeles…But Otto’s most spectacular artistic achievement is her home, jam-‐packed with her imaginative folk inspired creations…a folksy fine art mecca…” Priscilla Frank, Huffington Post: Arts and Culture
“Ramona Otto is an artist who creates works that honor the tiny obscure discarded treasures of our lives. She is a forager of bits of stories that have fallen away and once rescued by her unwavering belief and eye create a larger narrative with a rare beauty and underlying irony. She makes us stop and smile and then look closer at her painstakingly detailed work. She is today's artist recycler at the very highest level! “
-‐Mary Randolph Carter, creative director and senior executive at Ralph Lauren Corporation, author
“An important contemporary artist, Ramona Otto makes art out of everything. Her assembled and collaged objects, both sculptural and two dimensional, excite the eye and activate our thinking about culture, personal landscapes and history. Both popular and particular, her artworks, created from bits and pieces of discarded possessions and souvenirs, are the “stuff” that dreams were made of. Ramona takes these objects on a new journey of invention. Puns, wordplay and nostalgia inhabit Ramona’s work, but they are just the beginning of the investigation. The artist documents without judging and we, in turn, come to our own conclusions as we examine her work. What pleasure we derive from the journey her pieces take us on.”
-‐Carol Sauvion, creator and executive producer of the Peabody Award winning PBS series Craft in America