Ochi Projects is pleased to present Estado de Alarma, a virtual presentation (also viewable online at www.estadodealarma.ar) of paintings by Argentinian artist, Nicolás Romero. The works will be featured online from December 9, 2020 through January 30, 2021.

Back in March, Romero was at an artist residency in Barcelona, Spain. When the country issued a state of emergency due to COVID-19, the Argentinian embassy told Romero he could travel home to Buenos Aires via Madrid. Romero made his way to Madrid, only to find that by the time he arrived, he could no longer leave the county, or re-enter his own. Making the best of the situation, he found a studio and started painting.

The still life has been a consistent trope within Romero’s practice, a way for the artist to address the human condition—obscuring himself among imagery both personal and universal—and to consider our lifelong relationship to image consumption and the way symbols reinforce the status quo. This series of seven paintings act as a visual narrative of Romero’s thoughts during the state of alarm as he considered his experiences as a man raised in the tradition of the patriarchy, as an Argentinian, trapped, living illegally in a country that had once colonized his own, and as a citizen of a world driven by politics and capitalism.

Daily encounters are painted alongside memories, relics, symbols and objects. In Romero’s paintings references to nostalgic popular culture, current political events, world history, capitalism and colonialism pile on top of one another, the past within the present, the individual experience blends with the collective – nuances seemingly magnified by the global pandemic. Romero presents these paintings not exclusively as critique, but more as observation. If anything, he hopes to strike a tone more humorous than cynical as he remains ever optimistic about the ingenuity of humankind and our potential for better.

Nicolás Romero (Buenos Aires, 1985) trained in painting and drawing in 1999 with Ariel Olivetti and between 2007 and 2008 he studied at the Rojas Cultural Center. In 2014 he was selected for the Facebook artists program and in 2019 he participated in the study method "Work Clinic" with the artist Diana Aisenberg. He has had solo exhibitions at The Diogenes Club in Los Angeles, at Varsi Gallery in Rome, Libertad Gallery in Queretaro and Dinámica Gallery in Buenos Aires, and his work has also been included in group shows in France, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Austria, Australia, Mexico, Spain and the United States. His work has been exhibited in cultural institutions such as the Amalita Fortabat Museum and Palais de Glace in Buenos Aires, the Macro Museum in the city of Rosario and the Biennial of urban interventions in the CCEC and the Caraffa Museum in Córdoba, Argentina.