Join Radius Books as we celebrate the release of Cara Romero’s first monograph with a book signing and launch party at the artist’s gallery in Santa Fe, NM.
Enjoy light refreshments, browse the publication, and chat with the publisher and artist.
Copies of Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light) available for purchase at the signing and online here.
This event is free & open to the public.
Cara Romero’s storytelling leads us into the future. Each image is a doorway to an even more profound level of imagination than thought possible and remakes a history that includes us: the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren, and those who follow, generation-by-generation.
— Joy Harjo
Throughout her renowned creative practice, Cara Romero has brilliantly challenged dominant narratives of Indigenous decline and erasure, disrupting preconceived notions about what it means to be a Native American. The artist’s first monograph, Panûpünüwügai (Living Light), explores the ways in which her images simultaneously acknowledge the injustices of colonialism while centering the humanity and vitality of her Indigenous collaborators, inviting audiences to engage in transformative dialogues.
Published in conjunction with the artist’s first solo museum exhibition of the same name, this comprehensive publication highlights the breadth of Romero’s practice, bringing together a dynamic selection of images from across her diverse bodies of work.
Organized into thematic sections, the works are accompanied by essays from notable scholars, including Karen Kramer, Curator of Native American and Oceanic Art and Culture, Peabody Essex Museum; Suzan Shown Harjo; Joy Harjo; Jordan Poorman Cocker, Curator of Indigenous Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Felicia Garcia, Education Programs Manager at the Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center; Kate Nelson, an award-winning journalist; and Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs & Curator of Indigenous Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth.
Learn about the limited edition here.
Naomi, 2017
Archival pigment print
17 × 20 inches (print)
Edition of 10, signed by the artist
$2,500
“When people ask, ‘Why don’t you speak your language, why don’t you dress a certain way?’ there is a pushback and an exhaustion, where I want to respond, ‘because you forcefully took it all away.’ Conversely, some of them exist against all odds, and I do like to examine that in my photographs. If you look at the photograph of Naomi and the work of Leah Mata Fragua . . . it’s about California culture against all odds.”
—Cara Romero
This photograph features Naomi Whitehorse, the daughter of artist and regalia maker Leah Mata Fragua, both Northern Chumash from San Luis Obispo. Naomi carries dance sticks and wears a headdress adorned with white dove and goose feathers as well as a dress adorned with abalone. She wears necklaces made from pine nuts, Olivella snails, abalone, and clamshells, materials worn as adornments by her tribe for thousands of years. Her regalia and the natural materials surrounding her, combined with the bright pink ground and the beadwork -- inspired black-and-white triangular patterns on the frame, create an eye-catching ode to California pop.
All proceeds directly support the production and programming of
Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light)