Industrial Landscape, Mateo Romero

Exhibition Label:
"American Indian Art at the Spencer Museum," 6-Sep-2003 to 19-Oct-2003, Andrea Norris
Mateo Romero is a painter and printmaker, born in Berkeley, California, who now lives at Pojoaque Pueblo near Santa Fe. His father, Santiago Romero, was a painter, his grandmother, Teresita Romero, was a potter, and his brother Diego is also an artist. Romero paints with broad brush strokes that suggest that his painting process involves strong gestures. Many of his paintings investigate the intersection between mythologies about Indians and reality and between traditional Indian themes and contemporary American life.

This painting depicts an abandoned smelter outside Pueblo, Colorado and seems to suggest the negative impact industrialization has on the landscape. While many people see the lower section of the painting as a body of water with a boat, it is meant to represent a white pickup truck in a parking lot.