Diego Romero

Diego Romero (b. 1964, California) is a third-generation Cochiti Pueblo artist who specializes in pottery and printmaking. Romero's practice marries Cochiti Pueblo traditions with his love of comic books, superheroes, mythology and pop culture. When working in ceramics, he honors his ancestors' method of coiling clay, but expands the tradition with modern imagery and painting treatments. Across mediums, Romero's narratives combine humor and biting social commentary that suggest messages about contemporary Native American life related to Native politics, history, identity, war and alcoholism.

Romero attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe before earning his BFA at Otis Parsons School of Design and his MFA at the University of California, Los Angeles. His work is found in numerous public collections including the British Museum (London), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.) and New Mexico Museum of Art. The artist is married to photographer Cara Romero and the couple live in Santa Fe.

Related Works

• Romero is a frequent collaborator with the print shop Landfall Press, now known as Black Rock Editions, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other printmakers who've worked with Landfall and Black Rock include Lesley Dill, Sol LeWitt, Christo and Judy Chicago.
• In the collection of our sister gallery, form & concept, Todd Ryan White takes similarly funny and revolutionary liberties in his interpretations of pop culture iconography. View his work.