DIEGO ROMERO
Der Esel Wagon
Date: 2007
Dimensions: 5.25” x 13.8”
Medium: Earthenware
Condition: Overall very good
Provenance:
– Artist
– Private Collection
– Trotta-Bono Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA
Diego Romero’s ceramic pot masterfully intertwines traditional Mimbres and Puebloan geometric motifs with contemporary comic and pop art influences. The checkered white and gold rim delicately contrasts with the central, comic-style depiction of Choco – a recurring Puebloan alter ego – and a white woman in a moment of passionate intimacy inside a car. Sweating and marked with exclamation points, their intertwined figures express raw sexuality, tension, and humor. Through this bold fusion, Romero challenges conventional perceptions of Indigenous art and identity, using humor and explicit storytelling to explore themes of cultural encounter, desire, and the complexities of human relationships.
Diego Romero (1964– ) is a third-generation Cochiti Pueblo artist celebrated for his dynamic ceramics and prints that intertwine Pueblo tradition with pop culture's narrative flair. Born and raised in Berkeley, California, to a Cochiti father and non-Native mother, Romero spent childhood summers in New Mexico at his ancestral Pueblo. He began formal art training at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, went on to earn a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design, and completed his MFA at UCLA in 1993. Initially influenced by traditional Pueblo and Ancestral Pueblo clay techniques and inspired by Greek and Mimbres pottery styles, Romero’s bowls investigate the marginalized status of Indigenous society. The artist has developed a distinctive visual vocabulary, inspired by time spent in comic book stores, that elevates Pueblo narratives with superheroic drama and biting humor.
Romero’s work often riffs on moments of Pueblo resistance, colonial history, and contemporary Native life, using dark humor to foster critical reflection. He famously blends traditional coiled earthenware forms with vivid, comic-style figures in series such as the Chongo Brothers—the latter named for the traditional nape bun hairstyle and characterized by muscular, heroic male figures echoing both ancient and modern mythology. Romero's artistic ethos, shaped by mentors like Otellie Loloma, Ralph Bacerra, and Adrian Saxe, confronts stereotypes and affirms Indigenous identity, even as he respectfully avoids sacred imagery.
Romero’s ceramics and lithographs have been widely exhibited throughout the U.S. and Europe, and held in major public collections. Institutions that house his work include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, Fondation Cartier (Paris), Denver Art Museum, Heard Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, Scottish National Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, New Mexico Museum of Art, Muscarelle Museum, National Museum of Scotland, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, the Crocker Art Museum, Hood Museum at Dartmouth, and the Crocker Art Museum.