Lisa D. Wyatt 
Artist and curator Augustine Romero incorporates Mesoamerican painting, sculpture and mythology in “Hecho en Aztlán”, his solo installation at the 208 exhibition.
Romero grew up in Pueblo, Colorado before spending several years in New York City, where he was exposed to a wide range of contemporary art in an intense big city setting. As a young professional arts administrator, Romero also participated in the Curatorial Development Program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
His own works, aesthetically imported from the concrete jungle of New York City, are an inspiring blend of the megalopolis skateboarding scene, pop culture, urban graffiti, minimalism, ancient Native American and Mesoamerican cultural iconography, hiking adventures in the Rockies and palimpsest manuscripts. .
Although based on modernist and post-modernist abstraction, most of Romero’s sculptures and paintings refer to contemporary and historical events. One of my favorite sections of the installation is “West Mesa Allegories”, a stunning nine-piece arrangement of vertical bas-relief panels with beautifully colored palimpsest surfaces.
Their coffin lid shapes could also be thought of as stylized surfboards. But they are an ode to the mysterious series of unsolved murders of young women who were buried at West Mesa in Albuquerque over a period of years.
Although tied to a dark chapter in our city’s history, Romero’s transcendent craftsmanship, sense of design and color place this quartet among the finest works in the exhibition. Their polished surfaces reveal the application of many coats of color that have been sanded, repainted and re-sanded to an ageless mottled finish.
The theme of the show, which runs until December 9, is the origin of the Aztec culture that arose from the mythical land of Aztlán, which covered much of what is now the western United States. -United. There is an underlying cultural counterpoint residing in the 22-part installation “The Temptation of Saint Anthony in the Desert of Aztlán” on and in front of the west wall of the gallery.
This densest and most complex section of the show houses no less than 15 “Gutter Drones” made from wooden and/or metal shapes mounted on skateboard wheels. These stationary objects imply speed, robotics and dynamism while emblematic of flying drones that spread across the skies of the world like swarms of angry mosquitoes.
Other items are titled “Flying Serpent”, “Remains of the Mexican Gray Wolf”, “Death Cart”, “Death Mask”, and “Cuauhtémoc and Glass Skull”. Cuauhtémoc ruled Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521 as the last Aztec emperor.
The original Mesoamerican Glass Skull or Crystal Skull was discovered in Central America. It apparently dates back to the Classic Maya period around the year 900 and was carved from a clear quartz crystal. Its polished surface, precisely articulated anatomy and excellent craftsmanship make it a timeless, world-class work of art.
While these historical connections can easily be made, Romero’s goal is to raise awareness of the extremely long cultural history dating back thousands of years before the European invasion of Mexico and the Southwest that began with the landing of ‘Hernán Cortés in Veracruz in 1519.
Romero just wants to help make Aztlán even better. Two thumbs up.
