Diego Romero (artist)

Diego Romero (born 1964) is a Cochiti Pueblo artist living in New Mexico.

Diego Romero
Born1964
Berkeley, California
NationalityCochiti Pueblo, United States of America
EducationMFA University of California, Los Angeles, BFA Otis College of Art and Design, Institute of American Indian Arts
Known forceramics, printmaking, painting
MovementPueblo art, Native pop art
Spouse(s)Cara Romero
External images
Diego Romero portrait
When Titans Collide
Double Take, Chongo Brothers, 2002

Background

Diego Romero was born in Berkeley, California in 1964. His father is Santiago Romero, a Cochiti Pueblo Indian, and his mother is Nellie Guth, a European-American born and raised in Berkeley.[1] Diego was also raised in Berkeley, California,[2] but spent his childhood summers with his paternal grandparents at the pueblo in Cochiti, New Mexico.[1] Romero's father was a traditional painter, although he had lost a hand from being wounded in the Korean War.[1] In his youth, Diego Romero related to his tribe with difficulty. But, the Cochiti council honored him by granting him the right to occupy his grandfather's property.[1] His brother Mateo Romero is also a notable painter. Romero's wife, Cara Romero, is a noted photographer.[3]

Art career

Raised in Berkeley, California, Diego Romero is a third-generation Cochiti Pueblo artist who specializes in pottery (he also does printmaking).[4] One of his collaborators in pottery was Navajo - Hopi ceramicist Nathan Begaye (1958 - 2010).[1]

After art school in California, Romero attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. After one year at IAIA, he enrolled at Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles, where he earned his BFA degree. He studied next at University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his MFA in 1993.[1]

Romero's pots marry Cochiti Pueblo ceramics with his love of comic books, superheroes, mythology, and pop culture. He honors his Cochiti worldview and his ancestors' method of coiling clay but expands the tradition with imagery and painting treatments. He is a self-proclaimed "chronologist on the absurdity of human nature."[5] He draws on prehistoric Ancestral Pueblo and Mimbres ceramics, Greek vessels, and pop culture. Romero's narratives combine humor and often-biting social commentary that communicate messages about contemporary Native American life, including difficult issues related to Native politics, history, identity, war, and alcoholism.[6]

In the 1990s, Romero catapulted to notoriety in the American Southwest ceramics world with his "Chongo Brothers" polychromed earthenware series. A chongo is a Southwest Native man who wears his hair in a traditional bun.[1] Some of the characters figured in his work reflect a Greek painting style, and portray idealized, muscular bodies. Romero's work explores gender politics, sexuality, and multifaceted identities of Native people, and all the while, relates the contemporary to the ancient.

A collection of his work toured Europe in 2006. He is represented by galleries in New York and Santa Fe, including Robert Nichols Gallery.

Notable collections
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See also

References
  1. Clark, Garth. Free Spirit: The New Native American Potter. Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: Stedelijik Museum's, 2006: 102-123.
  2. Clark, Garth. (Mar/Apr 2007). "Bridging two worlds," Ceramic Review, v. 224, p. 48-51.
  3. Ortiz, Sara Marie (2014-08-18). "Photographer Cara Romero: Creating Conversations". The Santa Fe New Mexican. pp. Z036. Retrieved 2017-11-28 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Manifestations: New Native Art Criticism. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. 2011. pp. 154–155. ISBN 978-0-615-48904-9.
  5. "Artisode 2.6 Diego Romero". Retrieved July 25, 2012.
  6. Kropa, Madeleine (2012). Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art. Salem, MA: Peabody Essex Museum in collaboration with Yale University Press. pp. 182–183. ISBN 978-0-87577-223-3.
  7. "Diego Romero". The British Museum. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  8. Dylan A. T. Miner. "Diego Romero". Vision Project. Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. Missing or empty |url= (help)
  9. "The Collection Online: Dough Bowl". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  10. "She-Wana's Dream". Collections Search. National Museum of the American Indian. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  11. Diego Romero works at New Mexico Museum of Art
  12. https://www.brown.edu/research/facilities/haffenreffer-museum/collections
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