Santiago Lopez de Romaña
Bio
After several years dedicated to the direction of advertising spots, he redirects his attention towards author photography, participating in a series of collective exhibitions and art fairs, such as: A Mar at the Lucia de la Puente Gallery (Lima, 2016) / North American Peruvian Cultural Center (Arequipa, 2016), the Most Hype Award at Mapa Feria (Buenos Aires, 2019), and Des/bordes del Perú at CV Galería (Santiago, 2019), among others. His first solo show was Días Prestados, presented at the Cede Gallery (Lima, 2018). In 2019 he exhibits at the ArtLima fair (Booth Project section) and that same year he is an artist selected for projection in the Peruvian pavilion of Arco Madrid. In 2021 he begins to be represented by Carlos Caamaño Foto Galería, where he exhibits his second individual project Apuntes sobre el Bicentenario (Lima, 2021).
Statement
López de Romaña's work transits between his fondness for collection and the need for his own taxonomy. Between the rigor of the chronicler and the delight of the voyeur. Photographing, serializing, assembling, have the purpose of materializing something that we can confront. Thus his work always speaks of absence. Of things that are no longer. That they no longer exist. That obsession to invoke, to recreate, to be reflected in nothingness, is what feeds his artistic production. Whether in photography, assemblage, illustration or video, López de Romaña always ends up recounting the damage. An inventory of calamity. As the critic Jorge Villacorta points out, there is a wounded beauty in the articulation of these remains that embody memories and a sparse emotion that manages to hold them.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in