Romero’s Broke Car Landscape combines traditional techniques and forms with images from contemporary popular culture. Ancient Mimbres wares are referenced by shape and palette, typically black, white, and red, but the gold embellishment here is a nod to the western classical tradition. This ceramic painting may allude to the isolation and timelessness of pueblo culture but in a cartoon-like style. Growing up in California, he spent summers with his father’s family at Cochiti, and moved there after receiving an MFA from UCLA in 1993. He signs much of his work as Chongo, referencing a Southwest Native man’s hairstyle—a bun.