BIOGRAPHY
David Ramey (1939 -2017) was a self-taught artist born in Ridgeway, Virginia. In 1949, he relocated to Roanoke, Virginia where he lived and worked for the remainder of his life. From the 1980s until his passing in 2017, he created more than 700 drawings during a nearly 40-year period. As an adult, Ramey worked as a train conductor on the Norfolk Western Railroad. Heavily influenced by watching his father draw in his youth, Ramey took up drawing as a means to visually record humorous events he encountered in his profession. Ramey later focused his artistic attention on documenting everyday life in Roanoke’s thriving Black community. In his intimate, meticulously rendered drawing in colored pencil, ink, and marker on paper, Ramey recalls from memory the people and businesses from the Gainsboro neighborhood in which he grew up. Between 1955-1980, the artist witnessed the destruction of his community as Black residents and businesses in Gainsboro and Northeast Roanoke were displaced, and numerous properties were acquired by eminent domain. Often pairing his drawings with handwritten stories, Ramey’s narrative works resonate with collective nostalgia for a community lost in the effort of Urban Renewal—an all-too-common story reflected in cities across America. Certain collections of drawings and stories were conceptualized as books, including Ramey’s self-published volume The Times and Life on Henry Street. David Ramey’s art was the subject of the major two-part solo exhibition David Ramey: Gainsboro Road and Beyond, presented at Taubman Museum of Arts, Roanoke, VA and The Harrison Museum of African American Culture, Roanoke VA from 2023-2024.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024-25
Some People Call It Progress, Fort Gansevoort, online exhibition
2023-2024
David Ramey: Gainsboro Road and Beyond, Taubman Museum of Arts and The Harrison Museum of African American Culture, Roanoke, VA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Roanoke City public collection, Roanoke, VA
PUBLIC ARTWORK
2024
The David Ramey Gainsboro Mural Wall, Gainsboro Garage, Roanoke, VA
PRESS
2024
Anderson, Hazelmarie. “It was a community within a city. It was a city within a city' - One Roanoke artist brings Gainsboro to life.” WFXR-TV. February 23. Cook, Lindsey. “A look at historic Gainsboro through the art of David Ramey, Sr.” WDBJ7. February 18.
Capodanno, Kate and Natalie Faunce. “Black History Month: Celebrating art that captures Roanoke’s Black neighborhoods.” WDB7J. February 1.
2023
Husock, Howard. “Sins of Omission: Public Broadcasting Fails to Reach a Broad Cross-Section of America.” American Enterprise Institute. December 19.
Nowlin, Shawn. “Taubman Late Night Series highlights David Ramey exhibit and more.” Roanoke Tribune. November 28.
Allen, Mike. “Roanoke's historic Black neighborhood recorded by artist David Ramey.” Cardinal News. November 7.
Bossert, Jeff. “Drawings capture a lost era - Roanoke's Gainsboro Neighborhood.” Radio IQ/WVTF. November 2.
Editors. “New Exhibition Tells the Story of a Lost Roanoke Neighborhood.” Harrison Museum of African American Culture. November 1.
Marshall, Kianna. “Gainsboro Illustrated.” The Roanoker. October 31.
Husock, Howard. “Roanoke Atones for Urban Renewal – Artistically.” City Journal. October 23.
“David Ramey: Gainsboro Road and Beyond.” The Roanoker. October 6.
Dashiell, Joe. “New exhibition of Gainsboro drawings spans two Roanoke museums.” WDBJ7.
September 26.
Editors. “David Ramey: Gainsboro Road and Beyond.” Mutual Art. August 1.
Editors. “Virginia Humanities grants to variety of projects in valleys.” The Roanoke Times. April 4.