CARA ROMERO
HERMOSA
Date: 2021
Dimensions: 31.75” x 25.5” (Art) / 33.5” x 27” (Framed)
Edition of 13
Medium: Archival fine art photograph printed on Legacy Platine paper
Condition: Overall very good
Provenance:
– Artist’s Studio, Santa Fe, NM
– Trotta-Bono, Los Angeles, CA
Note from the artist: This spectacular image was captured candidly during an intimate shoot at sunset with my daughter, Crickett Tiger, on the shore of Hermosa Beach. Going to Los Angeles was a homecoming to my birthplace, but it was also a pilgrimage to the Chemehuevi place of creation. These months we spent at the beach became a modern remembrance of Chemehuevi creation stories and creation songs and the mythos of Great Ocean Woman (Hutsipamamow). They became a visualization of the indigenous worldview that these places, however developed, are still holy places to First Peoples.
Cara Romero, (1977– ) is a Contemporary Native American artist of the Chemehuevi Tribe, known for her innovative approach to photography and exploration of Native identity through a modern lens. Cara Romero's work is characterized by its vibrant, often surreal imagery that blends traditional Native American elements with contemporary art practices. Cara’s photographic work reveals a deep commitment to social issues, feminism, anti-colonialism and the eternal verities of procreation and survival.
Through a combination of staged scenes, symbolic imagery, and modern aesthetics Cara Romero challenges and redefines representations of Native American people and culture. Her work features models dressed in traditional attire, set against carefully constructed backdrops that reflect both historical and contemporary themes. The artist often includes her own family and friends as subjects.
Cara Romero has exhibited her work extensively in galleries and museums across the United States and Internationally. This past year, she has had work included in many major exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Gorman Museum, the Heard Museum and the Palm Springs Art Museum. Romero has had solo exhibitions at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Museum of Anthropology in Denver and the San Bernadino County Museum in California. Cara Romero’s work is included in the permanent and prestigious collections of the Guggenheim Museum, the Hood Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the RISD Museum, as well as the British Museum and the Bristol Museum in the United Kingdom, among many other Institutions.
A major touring retrospective of Romero’s work is currently on view at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College, titled Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light).