ARTISTS TO KNOW: ROSSANA ROMERO
Photography: Nabila Wirakusumah
Creative Direction & Production: Bianca Jean-Pierre & Nabila Wirakusumah
Rossana Romero is a prime example of what it means to be an artist. Not afraid to use her art to speak on topics such as colonialism and historical trauma, while creating a path to healing through her work that carves new, imaginative ways of being that ignite hope, resilience, self actualization, and self empowerment. Rossana’s art transcends her Colombian heritage and identity by encouraging learning about our unique histories together so we can use that knowledge to evolve collectively as a society. Her preferred artistic mediums inspired by magic realism, are beautifully vibrant oil paintings of fantasy landscapes referencing the lush terrains of the Amazon featuring her iconic animal motifs which she also molds into textured paper mâché sculptures and frames.
While visiting Rossana in Ridgewood, we now became a part of her fantasy world where a five foot paper mâché two-headed caiman and scorpion sculptures adorn her studio as spirit guides. We stopped by one of her favorite local Colombian bakeries while we chatted over empanadas and pan de queso about her upbringing in Houston, her continually evolving spiritual and artistic journey, and how she’s not afraid of stepping into the spotlight and living up to her true calling as an artist.
Rossana Romero interviewed below by Nabila Wirakusumah (SHEER Creative Director) and Bianca Jean-Pierre (SHEER Founder)
Bianca: We’re here with Rosanna Romero and we’re really thrilled to show your work at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair coming up in July! You were just at Future Fair so tell us how that experience was for you?
Rossana Romero: I had a lot of fun seeing other people's work and seeing what it means to be at a fair. Also being able to connect with people that I would have never been able to before, especially people that are interested in the history of my work and the process of making it. I usually don't get those questions in person, so it was really exciting to be able to experience that with people which is a different experience than a regular gallery setting.
Bianca: Was this your first art fair?
Rossana: Yeah, I've only ever done gallery shows. That was my first time in a booth at a fair.
Bianca: How long have you been an artist? Or considered yourself one?
Rossana: I think intentionally through professional work, I've been an artist for seven to eight years. But I've been making art my whole life.
Bianca: Did you start with painting first? Because you're also a sculptor.
Rossana: At the root of it, I'm a painter. I started taking it seriously and shifting into becoming a painter around 2018. I’ve been making art my whole life, but started making it professionally around 2018.
Nabila: Nice. When you talk about meeting people at the fair that were asking about the history of your art, what did you notice about who gravitated to your work? Do you have a specific audience member in mind when you’re creating?
Rossana: Yeah, I do have an audience in mind when I make my work. It's usually the people I want to heal with me and people that I think don't necessarily know their own history. They’re frustrated with their reality right now and I think my work is meant to speak to that audience. I feel like the people that came up to me at Future Fair and the kind of people that gravitate to my work in general are people that are also trying to seek healing. A lot of people really gravitate toward the animals. I think that people are really able to find strength in them.
Nabila: I'm sure people that share your heritage gravitate towards your work but is there also something you've noticed about people from different cultures healing together? What about the audience that doesn't share your heritage?
Rossana: I don't necessarily make art just for people that are a part of my culture because it's not just my culture that I'm talking about. It's more the consequences of colonialism which the entire world has been affected by. My audience is bigger than just my identity. It's bigger than my culture, because the whole world has been affected by colonialism, which is why I think a lot of people can see themselves reflected in the work. I've had people from different parts of the world see themselves in my work. I had a lot of people email me from India and from Africa. There’s no Amazon there, but we all have a shared experience with mythology through forests, or the ocean and lakes, or even just being around animals.
Bianca: I remember when we last spoke, you mentioned that sometimes you don't like to tell people that you're Colombian and that you intentionally create fictional and imaginative environments beyond your identity. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Rossana: I play with magic realism a lot. I reference and like to pull from authors that also play with magic realism. I like the idea of working with practical history and using practical timelines but creating a magical world and fictional spaces to retell those stories. I want to question things like authority and surveillance. I like to use my paintings as ways to create new worlds to escape and find new meanings. Everyone can technically relate to the work and the story because it goes beyond identity and the culture part doesn't really matter. This is why I enjoy magic realism because it's not tied to a root or a place. It's tied to the story that repeats itself in many places.
“I don’t necessarily make art just for people that are a part of my culture because it’s not just my culture that I’m talking about. It’s more the consequences of colonialism which the entire world has been affected by.”
Nabila: What’s the significance of the animals that you choose? What does each one symbolize to you?
Rossana: Yes, scorpions are one of my newer motifs that have come in within the last two or three years. And I use reptiles. All of my animals in my art are angels guiding people through storytelling. Each motif lets you know what timeline we're in and what story we're telling. I use different animals to show which reality we're in like I have the water setting, the land, and the hills. With the scorpion, that’s a reference to my grandpa who's a Scorpio. I use him as an angel and an ancestral guide.
I'll use my reptiles, when I'm talking about very surreal stories that could be myths that are oral histories that have no factual record. This is why a lot of them have two heads showing the duality of a higher power. It represents having two parts of yourself: one in the real world and one in the higher world. Your spiritual self and your real, tangible self.
Nabila: From a colonial, Western perspective, snakes are often seen as evil. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. You're describing them as angels.
Rossana: I see them as soft creatures that are meant to almost embrace you. Like the Scorpio, it takes a lot to tap into their vulnerable side and a lot of our vulnerable moments often come from not understanding our history. We’re frustrated and angry and don't know why we feel this way. A lot of us aren't really taught soft love, we're taught survival. A lot of opening up those layers is really going through these rough edges, which is why I really like these animals. I feel like if anything is going to take you through this transformative process, it's going to be these kinds of animals.
“I’ll use my reptiles, when I’m talking about very surreal stories that could be myths or oral histories that have no factual record. This is why a lot of them have two heads showing the duality of a higher power. It represents having two parts of yourself: one in the real world and one in the higher world. Your spiritual self and your real, tangible self.”
Bianca: Is anyone else in your family an artist? Were your parents artists or creative?
Rossana: Well my sister is in a band and I consider my family to be artists. My aunts and my father were all musicians. I've always felt like my mom and her brothers were all artists because they were the type of people that would go around the house and make tires into sculptures, you know what I mean? They were very practical artists. They don't consider themselves artists, but they've helped rebuild spaces in Colombia and make them beautiful and to me, that's art.
Nabila: There’s also this racist and patriarchal connotation and hierarchy to the term “artist” words. Like why aren’t textiles and people who are craftsmen considered artists?
Rossana: Right? My mom's a hairdresser. My brain is like, that's an artist. If you were to ask people in the industry they would say that’s not art, and that’s classist. But that was my first introduction to art.
Bianca: What was that like for you growing up and seeing your mom in the salon?
Rossana: Oh my God, I grew up in the salon. My mom was a single mom so I was in the salon daily, all day after school with my siblings. We were really annoying and rowdy whatever so she would give us a mannequin head to keep us busy. My sister would give these mannequin heads raccoon tails and crazy haircuts. That led to me and my sister charging people at school for crazy haircuts. We were like 12. In school, they would give you five minutes to get to class and in those five minutes, we would go to the bathroom and cut people's hair.
Nabila: Speaking of mannequin heads we have one that you made that’s going to be in the photos. Where did that piece come from?
Rossana: It’s a really early one. I made that in 2017 when I was in LA and used to work in the studios and do special effects as a contractor. At the time, I was also taking a class to learn a little bit more about ways to make real natural things. We were able to use all of these materials to build heads and I decided to make a head of myself.
Bianca: And what about the wound?
Rossana: That was like being cut open and taking your third eye out. I was really transitioning into what spirituality means to me and I feel like a lot of spirituality is trusting yourself, but also trusting your faith and like whatever that means to you. I was really learning what it meant for me to be able to trust my own intuition, trust my own gut, and trust my body. The universe was taking my third eye out and taking away all of my natural instincts. I was really learning to be grounded.
Bianca: There's a thing called spiritual fatigue. Yeah, once you get too far down into it, you have to ground yourself because you still exist on this physical plane.
Rossana: In that moment of time, I was in grind mode. I really wanted to make artwork and so I was taking up studio effects and working in film, because I was like, I'll do anything as long as it’s creative. And working in film and on set requires very long hours, right? There are 12 hour days and I was getting really far in my career, but it wasn't what I wanted. The struggle is that I was putting all this energy into things that didn't really matter to me and not what my path is in this world and what my responsibilities are in this world. When I'm stressing myself out, it affects my body first, and then that type of burnout affects everything else around me.
I feel like the way I need to work in this life is to always have my mental and my spiritual selves taken care of before I can take care of the rest of the parts of me. I’ve learned balance in my work life and to choose myself first. I think intuitively, a lot of people are not connected to themselves and we end up doing things that we think we're supposed to be doing, but we're not listening to ourselves. It's something that I've had to learn, even if it's not practical. To immigrant parents, being an artist is not a realistic or practical choice but it's a choice that for me is a part of my responsibility in this world. It's part of my debt to the world., right? That's how I see it. If I'm choosing anything else and doing other jobs for money and greed, I'm gonna have problems with my body.
Bianca: How do you get to that point? Because I think this is like a very universal issue that a lot of creatives resonate with. It’s even harder now when so much of being a really successful artist is tied to celebrity and capitalism.
Nabila: Yeah, what's your secret?
Rossana: I just have to make sure that I'm mentally stable. I'm also really strict and very disciplined on what I'm eating and everything I consume. I've been sober for almost five years now so I've chosen very cleansing paths. I'm not distracted. You have to trust yourself enough to believe what you're telling yourself because you already know the answers. But a lot of the time, we need affirmation or confirmation from other people. I guess that’s part of the secret is trusting that you know the right thing to do. That involves within the physical world, what you eat, what you consume, what you take on in labor but also spiritually and emotionally, you have to be able to trust yourself, instead of outside voices. It’s knowing yourself enough to know what makes you comfortable.
“My mom’s a hairdresser. My brain is like, that’s an artist. If you were to ask people in the industry they would say that’s not art, and that’s classist. But that was my first introduction to art.”
Nabila: I've been thinking a lot about people pleasing and being raised as a woman and taught to doubt myself. Women are supposed to be easygoing and whatever. Can you talk about your mom and the role she played, or just women in your life, that helped you reach this point?
Rossana: I think the women in my life have always taken on very masculine roles in my world. I don't really have that many men in my life except for my dad and my grandpa who were very soft-natured. They're still very masculine as a presence, but I see them as a presence and not the actual voice of the family. The voices of my family have always been my grandma and my mother. My mom has a very strong, masculine energy. A very dominant energy, but both of my parents are people that take up a lot of space. They are the stars of the show and the way I've seen them interact with people has allowed me to also gain that confidence. I've learned through them how to command a room without doing too much.They've taught me a lot about using your natural energy to attract who you want to attract
As artists, if you're going to choose the artist lifestyle you have to choose to be a superstar. Just choose to be a rock star and you have to really lean into that with confidence instead of trying to shy away from it. I'm not saying we have to always work with ego, but I think that you have to be confident because that's the only way to get there. To believe that I can even be successful, I have to act like it.
“I feel like the way I need to work in this life is to always have my mental and my spiritual selves taken care of before I can take care of the rest of the parts of me. I’ve learned balance in my work life and to choose myself first. I think intuitively, a lot of people are not connected to themselves and we end up doing things that we think we’re supposed to be doing, but we’re not listening to ourselves.”
Nabila: A hard talk I've been having with my partner is that being an artist means valuing your own voice. Valuing your identity and valuing what you have to say.
Rossana: You have to believe you’re a superstar. You don’t have to be rude, but if you don't think you're a superstar and don't consider yourself within that realm, no one's going to.
Bianca: For some people, it can be really exhausting and draining, being in the spotlight, because then you're not really in control anymore. And it's almost like you're at the will of how people perceive you.
Rossana: I've had this conversation with so many people because I don't consider myself an extrovert. I think that I was raised around extroverts so I know how the game goes. I like to see myself as a performer. As women in general we wake up and we perform daily. We are all performance artists in our own special way.
But the majority of my work is in isolation. I enjoy reading history and a lot of it is just isolating and experimenting and trying new things. I enjoy going to parties and dancing, but a majority of my process is in isolation and being with my mind. I try not to make work that is meant to be monetized. I really do try to practice making my work for myself but there are times where I want to experiment.
Last year, I bought a bunch of Dickies and printed my alligator motifs on them. Obviously that has nothing to do with fine art, but I love the idea of people who can't really afford my work still having access to it.
“As artists, if you’re going to choose the artist lifestyle you have to choose to be a superstar. Just choose to be a rock star and you have to really lean into that with confidence instead of trying to shy away from it. I’m not saying we have to always work with ego, but I think that you have to be confident because that’s the only way to get there. To believe that I can even be successful, I have to act like it.”
Bianca: You mentioned so many moments throughout your life and career where you had to work with your hands. We’re going to have an about 5 feet wide sculpture of one of your reptile motifs titled Hermanitas’ (Santas del Agua y Tierra) at our Hamptons Fine Art Fair booth. What prompted you to take one of the creatures you put in your paintings and actually build one out that's life size?
Rossana: I introduce my motifs by making a sculpture for each animal motif. I do that so when people see the sculptures, they can look for them in my paintings. I hide my motifs in all my paintings so when you see one, you then start to look for the others.
This reptile piece started from a painting that I made in 2020. It’s like my little guardian so I felt like I needed it to be really big because it's a big presence in my life. It's like all my ancestors in one place. I wanted it really big because I wanted it to take up space the way that it takes up space in my own brain and solitude.
Bianca: Tell us a little bit more about the material because the texture looks so realistic. Yeah,
Rossana: I use paper mâché in all my sculptures. It's a good question because most people don't even ask me why I work with alligators or caimans. But yeah, I really wanted to play with paper mâché as an experiment because I feel like we don't really take paper mâché seriously. I wanted something light, but massive and I felt like the only thing that could really capture that was paper mâché . Also, I feel like with my oil paintings, I overwork them in a way where I get really into perfectionism and the details and I don't know how to let it go. With paper mâché , there always comes a point where I can't work on it anymore and it's never perfect. I really enjoy this idea of learning to let go with paper mâché and learning to just accept the textures that are present within this medium.
The more I play with paper mâché , I love this illusion that it could be bronze or gold. It works really well with the stories I'm telling that rely on what gold stands for between Western colonialism and Indigenous history. A lot of Indigenous history doesn’t look at gold as monetary value. They're looking at it as decorative storytelling. A lot of Western history is looking at gold as monetary value. When people ask me well what material that is and I tell them paper mâché , there’s this shock value. These materials that are part of our day to day and can still be just as valuable as a mineral that we find underground. You know what I mean? It's a technique. It's what you do with it.
Nabila: How do you mold it?
Rossana: I shape it and paint it. People are still really stuck on how I make it look like gold. You can kind of make it look anything and there's still sharpness to it so I was shocked. I enjoy that feeling.
My work has this lushness and the softness to it until I start speaking on the references and there's a shock from people like, I didn't know that this was a mask. They didn't know that I was referencing genocide and that these things have happened because I'm telling it in such a light hearted way. It's the same thing with the caiman, and paper mâché . I'm using this medium that allows you to ask questions, which is what I want. I want people to ask questions about my work.
“The more I play with paper mâché, I love this illusion that it could be bronze or gold. It works really well with the stories I’m telling that rely on what gold stands for between Western colonialism and Indigenous history. A lot of Indigenous history doesn’t look at gold as monetary value. They’re looking at it as decorative storytelling. A lot of Western history is looking at gold as monetary value.”
Bianca: I also want to talk about your framing. It really draws me into your work too. You have this distinct framing that is also tied to your paper mâché sculptures and your motifs.
Rossana: I really wanted frames to be part of my work, but I didn't know how to do it. So I started working on the sides of paintings and adding motifs on them with actual paint, but that still didn’t fulfill what I wanted. I've always wanted a frame to feel like a portal, because I felt like in my mom's house, she always had these old frames. In our family we used frames to capture religious figures, or family portraits and just decorations around the house. It's very maximalist energy and very religious and spiritual and I really wanted these frames to be in the same tone of Catholic spaces, or like spiritual religious spaces.
Instead of using Catholic detailing, I started using my motifs and Indigenous storytelling as part of the frame detail because it's almost like a portal into the other world that I'm showing. With every detailed motif that I create on the frames, I'm introducing you to the world before you actually look at the painting, which is what I wanted. It's almost like an introduction to the book and to the story. I started hiding my animal motifs in there too, like, in my recent works that you saw, I hide the scorpions within the frames. This is a magical story, a surreal story I’m telling.
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Photography by Nabila Wirakusumah
NYALLAH is known for blending elements of neo-soul, R&B, hip-hop, and West African rhythms while exploring themes of self-expansion, transformation, and love. With their latest project, R+B, recorded in phases spanning a near-death bike accident and an eye-opening trip to Costa Rica, R+B navigates relationships, desirability, and self-awareness from a black queer perspective. Through enchanting vocals and vulnerable lyrics, NYALLAH reminds us that desirability is not love and our liberation lies in de-centering ourselves and prioritizing collective care.