Untitled, acrylic on paper

Luis Romero is Mexican-born artist who currently lives and works in Chicago. Romero’s recent works consist of wildly colourful, kaleidoscopic abstractions that form cohesive, alien shapes atop planes of white negative space.

Green Monkey Waiting For You, acrylic on paper and cardboard

It’s really interesting to look at Romero’s work as a series, and then to zoom in on each individual piece to observe the differences and similarities between works. With layer upon layer of brightly painted paper, the pieces seem to blur the line between abstract painting and collage. Tube-like forms and darkly-painted suggestions of holes and cavities lend an organic kind of charm to the works, and hearken to the portfolios of Jarmila Kostliva or Ikuko Iwamoto.

There’s an interesting sense of lowbrow, DIY aesthetics at play in Romero's works, one that often challenges perceptions of the medium. A painting that looks carefully rendered on canvas reveals itself up-close to be painted on torn paper circles held together with deliberately visible staples. Romero’s works are still calculated and thoughtful, but with a sense of playfulness that can’t be ignored.  

Abstraction with Aperture, acrylic on paper