Nothing Exists Anymore by Luis Romero is a solo exhibition questioning if an image can exist beyond the thing it’s representing. Interrogation and observation of the tension between the objective and subjective has preoccupied humankind for centuries; and perhaps the matter of objects’ relations to their representative images has commanded the most attention.
Owing to a background in graphic design, Luis’ paintings inherit his appreciation for the production of images. However, perhaps diverging from the precision aspired to by technology/ electronics, Luis now instead aspires to symmetry and semblance. Human errors are reconfigured as happy accidents and defects are defunct. Chromatic displacement, tensions and clashes are retained rather than erased.
References to the city are interspersed throughout this exhibition, with natural elements filtered through an urban lens, and the layers of symbolism in his paintings produce a synthesised effect, honouring each contribution to realising ultimate definition. An egg, for instance, alludes to both the known point of origin and the mystery that the shell provides. Ambiguity and speculation are certainly entertained by the exhibition.
Luis’ work reimagines the traditional trajectory of creative conception. To look to the future, Luis first looks to the past and present; contemplating how existing things can be reconfigured and reoriented to capture something new. Can the familiar and habitual also communicate the new and unknown?
Nothing Exists Anymore invites us to suspend our assumptions about how images come to be, and how we connect objects with the representations of reality turned into images.
Words by Maisie Greener
About the artist:
Luis Romero (Caracas, Venezuela, 1967) is a visual artist, curator and editor who lives and works in Caracas. He has exhibited his work in his native Venezuela and internationally, including solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Latin America and Europe. As co-director of the gallery Abra Caracas, he has been supporting the work of several Venezuelan artists since 2016; having previously directed Oficina #1 (2006-16).
