Meet contemporary Pueblo painter Mateo Romero, who has roots connecting to the Southern Keresan Cochiti people. Mateo’s paintings reflect a pattern of evolution and change. The images are powerful and imposing, juxtaposed with swirling gestural paint marks and drips. Timeless, archaic elements of Pueblo culture are juxtaposed with contemporary abstract expressionist palette knife and brush work. Overall, the paintings develop a rhythmic, hypnotic, trancelike feeling which is referential to the metaphysical space of the Pueblo and the dance itself.  He is currently a Dubin Fellow in painting at the School of American Research in Santa Fe, NM, and paints in his studio also located in Santa Fe.