María José Romero

The Nest Within Me

| 2018

The Nest Within Me shows the work of María José Romero from a new perspective, the artist presents the concerns and questionings she has addressed during the development of her career, but now she does it through installation and sculpture, momentarily leaving the canvas as well as painting to rest.

This particular moment in her work has come after winding the long road that self-knowledge represents, after a continuous reflection on human relationships, and through the assumption of both; the vulnerability that the external embodies, as well as the strength attained by acknowledging both thoughts and actions as belonging to oneself.

In most of her pieces, the artist has frolicked on the idea of ​​the unconscious and how it gives way to new states that guide behavior. She has represented this phenomenon with an organic environment, based mainly on Botany. In The nest within me, Romero explores a different science subject and now focuses on one of the elements of Ornithology: the nest. A self-care space—built by birds—that, just like human knowledge, is fabric and also a learning process. The nest is an education act and not an instinct that comes naturally to the birds—despite of what one might think. Both occurrences are actions which are perfected through work and repetition over the years.

The Nest Within Me is the artist’s first sample where organic materials are not represented, but are—in fact—present. With this piece, María José Romero has built a symbolic space where to regurgitate ideas, ponder on processes, and explore new ways of setting base and listening to herself.
 

Violeta Horcasitas
 

Mexico City, 2019