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Antonio Romero’s Paintings Are Reflections of the Shadows of Power

At Kates-Ferri Projects, the Salvadoran painter links colonial indigo, political branding and the postcard tropics in an immersive exhibition that invites American viewers to see their own moment in Central America's history.

Born in El Salvador, painter Antonio Romero has never had the luxury of political unawareness. “MIRROR,” marks the culmination of a residency at Kates-Ferri Projects in New York, is an immersive, critical diorama featuring pieces from both his ongoing Tropicalia series, begun in 2016, and new figurative works from his Navarone series, begun in 2019. The show presents a new narrative and symbolic climax even as it continues his exploration of power and how it operates in today’s world. Here, Romero invites us to reflect on the fragility of democracy and how what once happened in Central America continues to unfold across geographies. “We believed that, as societies, we had guaranteed rights and strengthened our institutions; however, it is evident that we must continue working in all areas of society to prioritize the collective interest over individualism,” he tells Observer.

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In addressing these themes, Romero uses a highly allegorical, largely symbolic visual language. His figures read almost as shadows, inhabiting an ambiguous, liminal space. They dissolve into the tropical forests, camouflaged within the landscape, blurred presences that belong as much to the subconscious or to a collective nightmare as to tangible reality. He is more interested in developing an artistic language than a style, he explains. “That is precisely what I do: use images to create metaphors that communicate meaning and a sense of time.”

Romero relies on several recurring symbols across series. In Tropicalia, for example, he paints black-and-white landscapes in which the palm tree is the sole element, a choice that lends the image a vintage, remote quality, evoking the past like a film still. Repeated, the palm........

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