LEGENDARY ART
‘Hecho en Aztlán’ features painting, sculpture, Mesoamerican mythology
Artist and curator Augustine Romero incorporates painting, sculpture and Mesoamerican mythology in “Hecho en Aztlán,” his solo installation at Exhibit 208.
Romero grew up in Pueblo, Colo., before spending several years in New York, where he was exposed to a broad spectrum of contemporary art in an intense big-city setting. As a young professional arts administrator, Romero also was involved in the curatorial development program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
His own artwork, having been aesthetically imported from the concrete jungle of New York City, is an inspirational mixture of the megalopolis skateboard scene, pop culture, urban graffiti, minimalism, ancient Native American and Mesoamerican cultural iconography, Rocky Mountain hiking adventures and palimpsest manuscripts.
Though based upon modernist and post-modernist abstraction, most of Romero’s sculptures and paintings are referential to contemporary and historic events. One of my favorite sections of the installation is “West Mesa Allegories” a stunning nine-piece arrangement of vertical low relief panels with beautifully hued palimpsest surfaces.
Their coffin lid shapes could also be viewed as stylized surfboards. But they are an ode to the mysterious series of unsolved murders of young women who were buried on Albuquerque’s West Mesa over a period of several years.
Though connected to a dark chapter of our city’s history, Romero’s transcendent craftsmanship, sense of design and color place this quartet
among the most gorgeous works in the exhibition. Their polished surfaces reveal the application of many layers of color that were sanded off, repainted and re-sanded until achieving an agelessly mottled finish.
The theme of the show, which runs through Dec.
9, is the origin of the Aztec culture that sprang from the mythical land of Aztlán, which covered much of what is now the western United States. There is an overlying cultural counterpoint residing in the 22-part “The temptation of St. Anthony in the Aztlán Desert” installation on and in front of the west wall of the gallery.
This most dense and complex section of the show harbors no fewer than 15 “Gutter Drones” made from wood and/or metal forms mounted on skateboard wheels. These stationary objects imply speed, robotics and dynamism while emblemizing the flying drones that are spreading through the world’s skies like swarms of angry mosquitoes.
Other objects are titled “Flying Serpent,” “Remains of the Mexican Gray Wolf,” “Death Cart,” “Death Mask” and “Cuauhtémoc and Glass Skull.” Cuauhtémoc ruled Tenochtitlan from 1520-1521 as the last Aztec emperor.
The original Mesoamerican glass skull or crystal skull was discovered in Central America. It apparently dates back to the Mayan classical period around A.D. 900 and was carved from a clear quartz crystal. Its polished surface, accurately articulated anatomy and overall excellent craftsmanship makes it a timeless world-class art object.
Although these historic connections can easily be made, Romero’s purpose is to raise awareness regarding the extremely long cultural history reaching back thousands of years before the European invasion of Mexico and the Southwest that began with Hernán Cortés’ landing at Veracruz in 1519.
Romero just wants to help make Aztlán great again. Two thumbs up.