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


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.Clark, Garth. ''Free Spirit: The New Native American Potter.'' Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: Stedelijik Museum's, 2006: 102-123. Diego was also raised in Berkeley, California, but spent his childhood summers with his paternal grandparents at the pueblo in Cochiti, New Mexico. Romero's father was a traditional painter, although he had lost a hand from being wounded in the Korean War. 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. His brother Mateo Romero is also a notable painter. Romero's wife,
Cara Romero Cara Romero (born 1977) is a Chemehuevi photographer from the United States. She is known for her dramatic digital photography that examines Indigenous life through a contemporary lens. She lives in both Santa Fe, NM and the Mojave Desert. Biogr ...
, is a noted photographer.


Art career

Raised in Berkeley, California, Diego Romero is a third-generation Cochiti Pueblo artist who specializes in pottery (he also does printmaking). One of his collaborators in pottery was
Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
-
Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...
ceramicist
Nathan Begaye Nathan Begaye (1969–2010) was a Native American ceramics artist of Navajo and Hopi descent. Background Nathan Begaye was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1969 to a Navajo father and a Hopi mother.Clark, Garth. ''Free Spirit: The New Native America ...
(1958 - 2010). 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. Romero's pots marry Cochiti Pueblo ceramics with his love of comic books, superheroes, mythology, and
pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * Pop (Gas al ...
. 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." He draws on prehistoric
Ancestral Pueblo The Ancestral Puebloans, also known as the Anasazi, were an ancient Native American culture that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, a ...
and
Mimbres ceramics Mogollon culture () is an archaeological culture of Native American peoples from Southern New Mexico and Arizona, Northern Sonora and Chihuahua, and Western Texas. The northern part of this region is Oasisamerica, while the southern span of the Mo ...
, 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. 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. 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 Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...
, 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 The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory ...
.


Notable collections

* British Museum, London, England, UK * Cartier Foundation, Paris, France *
Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...
, Phoenix, AZ * Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY: ''Dough Bowl,'' 1994, gift of Ralph T. Coe * Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, VA * National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC: ''She-Wana's Dream,'' 2008 *
National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...
, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK * New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, NM * Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA * Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology at
Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...
, Providence, RI


See also

* List of Native American artists


References


External links


Interview with Diego Romero by Larry Abbott
at Robert Nichols Gallery
Vision Project, Diego Romero
Vision Project, by Dylan A. T. Miner {{DEFAULTSORT:Romero, Diego Living people 1964 births Native American potters Artists from New Mexico Pueblo artists 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans