COMICS ON CLAY
Mimbres traditional designs fused with comic imagery form the backbone of Diego Romero exhibit
Cochiti Pueblo artist Diego Romero decorates his pottery with images inspired by comic books and cartoons.
Diego Romero’s pottery melds the Mimbres tradition with comic imagery in a fusion of human absurdity.
Santa Fe’s Museum of Indian Arts and Culture has opened the largest assemblage of Romero’s work with “Diego Romero vs. the End of Art” through October 2020. The show marks the Cochiti Pueblo artists’ third at the museum and his solo debut.
Romero explores his Native roots through Cochiti pottery techniques and graphic art influences from comic books and cartoons. Observers may also sense a whiff of Keith Haring’s pop art whimsy in his figures.
It was during a UCLA master’s degree program that Romero’s style crystallized.
“I came out of a really strong background in craftsmanship,” he said in a telephone interview from Santa Fe.
Romero learned traditional pottery methods from Otellie Loloma of Hopi Pueblo. He also studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.
To earn his master’s degree, the budding potter studied with UCLA design professor and artist Adrian Saxe, who was determined to lift pottery from the critical dungeon of craft into fine art.
“To do that, it had to have a narrative,” Romero said.
At first, he was resistant, researching great pueblo and Japanese pottery traditions.
“Adrian said, ‘No, no, no, we’re going to carve new ground for potters,’ ” Romero said. “It has to be based in intellect.”
A stack of comic books always towered in Romero’s closet when he was growing up. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, he is the child of a Cochiti father and a blond, blue-eyed mother. He learned to read from comic books.
At UCLA, Romero began looking up the stories of Greek and Mimbres pottery. The latter pairs geometrical designs with representational images of animals. Greek pottery reflected the cultural beliefs and practices of an ancient culture.
“I just started devouring it,” Romero said. “People have been illustrating on pottery since the beginning of humankind. I came across the style that would take me farther than I ever would have imagined. So there was a history always. I just sort of revived it like Maria and Julian (Martinez) revived the black pottery.”
The exhibition of more than 40 works explores themes of war, women, family, substance abuse and art.
With its drooped figure sprouting angel wings before a bottle of booze, “Fallen Angel” conjures a dark time when Romero was struggling with alcoholism.
“I’ve been sober for about 16 years,” the artist said. “I hit my rock bottom and put the bottle down. Every once in a while,
there will be a catastrophic event: divorce, the death of a family member. Every once in a while, I will relapse. Normally, I’m a pretty nice guy. But when I drink, I’m not a pleasant person to be around.”
Another piece is an amalgam of pop culture, American Indian traditions and the artist’s quirky humor. It’s a parody of the famous “Pulp Fiction” poster with Uma Thurman lying on her stomach, a pueblo tablet crowning her head, a lollipop replacing her cigarette.
“That poster from ‘Pulp Fiction’ is iconic,” Romero said. “It’s totally a comic reference.”
Another piece features coyote dancing across a chocolate jar against the night sky and a pueblo background. Romero created the piece for the Robert Nichols Gallery on Canyon Road.
“He’s a popular demigod,” Romero said of the trickster. “He’s actually in a pantheon of characters I use. A lot of times, he’ll be tending bar; he’ll be the dealer in the casino.
“At night when you hear a coyote in the arroyo, I always wonder, what are they doing down there? It seems like they’re down there having a good old time.”
“The End of Art” in the show’s title is a play on Romero’s Marvel and DC Comics roots.
“It’s like ‘Superman saves the world,’ ” he said. “With the end of something comes the beginning of something.”
Romero’s career trajectory soared higher than he ever imagined. He can still remember the thrill of selling a $500 pot to Nichols 25 years ago. Today, Shiprock Santa Fe carries his work.
“For me, what means the most to me is placing pieces in museums,” Romero said. “It’s the closest thing I do to public art.”
His work can be found in MIAC, in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum.