Mateo Romero (born 1966) is a Native American painter. He was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...

, and is a member of the

Cochiti Pueblo Cochiti (; Eastern Keresan: Kotyit ʰocʰi̥tʰ– "Forgotten", Navajo: ''Tǫ́ʼgaaʼ'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sandoval County, New Mexico, United States. A historic pueblo of the Cochiti people, it is part of the Albuquerque Met ...

Background

Mateo Romero was born on December 9, 1966. His father, Santiago Romero was a Southern Keresan Cochiti artist."Mateo Romero: 2008 Indian Market Poster Artist." ''Towa Artists''
(retrieved 17 Jan 09) His mother is Nellie Guth, a European-American.Clark, Garth. ''Free Spirit: The New Native American Potter.'' Hertogenbosch, Netherlands: Stedelijik Museum's, 2006: 102-123. His father's mother, Teresita Chavez Romero, was a traditional

ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Wh ...

, known for her seated clay figurines and functional jars or ''ollas''.Schaaf, Gregory. "Four Painters." ''Native Peoples Magazine.''
2 Jan 2005 (retrieved 17 Jan 09) Mateo's Indian name is ''He-tse-tewa'' or "War Shield."

Art career

Romero attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

and studied under Varujan Boghosian and Frank Moss. He briefly attended the

Institute of American Indian Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic S ...

. At the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, Romero earned his MFA Degree in printmaking. At the

School for Advanced Research The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...

, he furthered his painting techniques as a Dubin Fellow in 2002. In 2008, he was chosen to be the SWAIA Indian Market poster artist. Mateo began painting narrative scenes providing social commentary on contemporary Pueblo life. Subject matter for his paintings falls into four categories: "Addictions," "Indian Gaming," " Bonnie and Clyde," and "Voices at Wounded Knee," according to writer Gregory Schaaf, PhD. He moved towards

mixed media In visual art, mixed media describes artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different media. Materials used to create mixed media art incl ...

and began working with historical photographs his "Dancers" series, which employs a technique he personally invented that incorporates asphalt into the surface. Romero's work was part of ''Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting'' (2019–21), a survey at the

National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center The National Museum of the American Indian–New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, is a branch of the National Museum of the American Indian at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in Manhattan, New York City. The museum is part of the Sm ...

in New York.

Personal

Romero lives in Pojoaque Pueblo with his wife, Melissa, and their three children, Rain, Povi, and Erik. His brother, Diego Romero is also a successful artist.

References

Collections

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and th ...

External links

Mateo Romero
Vision Project, by Jessica R. Metcalfe
Peabody Essex Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romero, Mateo 1966 births Painters from New Mexico Dartmouth College alumni Living people Native American painters Institute of American Indian Arts alumni Pueblo artists Academy of Art University alumni 20th-century Native Americans 21st-century Native Americans