Carla Rippey

Carla Rippey is a visual artist and the ex-director of The National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving "La Esmeralda." She lives and works in Mexico.

Early life Carla Rippey was born on May 21, 1950, in Kansas City, Kansas. She is the daughter of James Rippey and Barbara Wright. Her father worked as a photojournalist, and her mother was a scholar of Great Plains Literature and a Ph.D. in English Literature. Rippey was raised in the American Midwest in the states of Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. She has a brother and two sisters. After graduating from high school, she moved to Washington, D.C. In 1972, she became a visiting student at the Universidad de Chile and the Universidad Católica de Chile, where she learned printmaking while auditing classes.

Rippey began exhibiting in group shows in the 1970s. Her 1985 solo shows included “Cheap Philosophy and Trips to the Pyramids” Carrillo Gil Museum, Mexico City. "During the 1990s, Rippey’s work was exhibited many times. Her work was primarily shown in exhibitions around Mexico and the U.S. Most of her exhibitions consisted of prints and drawings, including one-person shows in the National Printing Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, and the Museum of Monterrey. , Carla Rippey. Shelter and Resistance. A retrospective exhibition, 1976-2016 El sueño que come al sueño published in 1993 Jardín de ecos: ecos de jardín published in 2000

Personal life Rippey met fellow student from Old Westbury Ricardo Pascoe in 1969 and married him in Santiago de Chile in 1972, during the presidency of Salvador Allende. Rippey and Pascoe separated in 1979. In 1980 Rippey relocated to Jalapa, Veracruz to work as a printmaking teacher at the Veracruz State University. In 1979 Rippey entered into a long-term relationship with the Mexican photographer and artist Adolfo Patiño, organizer of the “Peyote” collective.

Random facts and personal interview Rippey and Pascoe are friends with famed author Roberto Bolaño. She was involved in the early stages of the Infrarrealist poets’ group which led to Bolaño's book The Savage Detectives. Rippey had a short appearance in the book as the artist Catalina O’Hara.