De aquí y de allá: Frank Romero, A Survey: New York

Ruiz-Healy Art is pleased to present De Aquí y de Allá: Frank Romero, A Survey, a concurrent solo exhibition of works by Los Angeles-based artist Frank Romero, curated by Rafael Barrientos Martínez at our New York City and San Antonio galleries. De Aquí y de Allá: Frank Romero, A Survey will be on view at our New York City gallery from Thursday, November 14th, 2024, to January 31st, 2025. This collection of work unravels the cultural mosaic of Romero’s lived history as a pioneer of the Chicano/a movement, encompassing a variety of visual narratives influenced by his hometown of Los Angeles, California, and his travels across the greater American Southwest. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the influential Chicano art collective Los Four, of which Romero was an original member. The group helped redefine Mexican American artistic expression and bring attention to Chicano art in an institutional setting. 

“Within the LACMA EXHIBITION, the artists presented collaborative spray-paint paintings, social realist works, ephemeral and large scale sculptures, and installations that referenced home altars or ofrendas filled with personal ephemera, folk art, and everyday items. Overall, this exhibition and its accompanying programming challenged considerations of how we define both Chicana/o art as well as fine art overall, a postcolonial intervention that exposed exclusionary legacies while leaving the door open for those to come." - Rafael Barrientos Martínez 

The Black Drawings series brings together symbols and imagery of the neighborhoods in East L.A., which were rampant in cases of police brutality during Frank Romero's adolescence. The choice of graphite on paper allows the artist to render stark contrasts and instantaneously capture scenes that reflect Romero's commitment to addressing socio-political issues and the struggles of the Chicano movement in the 1960s and early 1970s. "Nostalgia for that era or a lot of the ideas is still very much a part of my work, which is stream-of-association, stream-of-consciousness. A lot of my work deals with that. And that's all happened because we all sat around the kitchen table and did drawings, and sort of every so often switched pieces of paper and worked on each other's drawings, in a collective spirit. I always enjoyed that, and to this day, where I sort of work more or less alone in my studio, I still do those kinds of works," explains Frank Romero.

Part of a larger body of work, the Chicano Iconography series explores the cultural and political identity of the Chicano community. Romero’s characteristic bold colors and iconic motifs are present and reflect on his experiences growing up in East Los Angeles. Objects drawn from the aesthetics of muralism and pop art stand as symbolic imagery for broader themes like social justice, culture, and identity. 

"In 1979, Frank Romero and his then-wife Nancy Romero bought land in Arroyo Seco, Taos, joining other California artists who spent part of the year there. They built an adobe house with help from the Taos Pueblo community, which sparked Romero’s deep interest in Southwestern culture. While building his home, he developed a unique process using earth and acrylic varnish instead of traditional clay plaster. This experience inspired his 1990s Adobe Series, where he displayed various soils in adobe molds as wall reliefs.”- Rafael Barrientos Martínez

Caja de Sombra-Dos Palmas (shadow boxes) is an artistic format that blends sculpture and painting. The work features palm trees, a recurring symbol in Romero’s work, “palm trees are all I’ve ever known. I don’t know a Dutch elm from a maple,” reflecting on the natural landscape of Los Angeles, a central theme in much of his art. These shadow boxes often evoke personal and cultural narratives, capturing fleeting moments or memories. Caja de Sombra features a car towing a trailer against a backdrop of acrylic-painted palm trees. The wooden three-dimensional sculptures recall the artist’s long-standing interest in the image and symbolism of automobiles and lowrider vehicles. When Carolina Miranda from the LA Times (March 9, 2017) asked about the genesis of his intrigue in cars, Romero said, “It’s so much Los Angeles. My father loved to drive. I grew up in a car, driving everywhere. That’s what I know about California. Cars were a part of the culture. That’s all you talked about as a young man.”

Frank Romero’s work merges cultural tradition with contemporary materials, as seen in Nopal, where the iconic cactus symbolizes resilience in Mexican and Chicano identity. Using neon, acrylic, and wood, Romero bridges the past and present, reflecting his early fascination with neon signs and his Chicano roots. Similarly, Serape de Madera con Rojo draws on the geometric patterns of Southwest textiles, reimagining them with bold acrylic colors on wood.