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[name] gallery. Jacob Romero (b. 2003) is a Chicago-based American artist and designer working at the intersection of identity, mythology, and nightlife. Through the lens of magical realism, Romero examines and untangles his Mexican-American identity from the broader American experience, drawing on research into Toltec mythology and metaphysics, as well as the sensory experi of club music. His practice is guided by a personal philosophy he calls the path to freedom — a framework for self-inquiry that treats art as a form of spiritual and cultural understanding.

This inquiry takes shape through a recurring American iconography — suburbia, houses, stars and stripes, cartoons — rendered in a fusion of hyperrealism and animation that blurs the line between reality and the dream world. Working primarily in graphite, pastel, and paint, Romero builds each piece from the ground up, hand-making his own panels from scratch as an extension of the work itself. 

He is co-director of [name] gallery, a curatorial project that aims to map out the current wave of the contemporary art scene across America.

www.name-gallery.com

Available for commissions and collaborations.

List of Services

- Original Artwork
- Creative Direction
- Graphic + Product Design
- Curation

hey@jacob-romero.com

Instagram
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Education
Bachelor’s of Design in Industrial Design
University of Illinois Chicago | 2022-2026

Group Shows
Cataclysmic Ecstasy and Apocalypse: A Presentation of Drawings
5th Floor Gallery, Chicago, 2026
Spring/thing breaking
5th Floor Gallery, Chicago, 2025
After Image 003
after/time Gallery, Portland, 2025
Group Critique
Porsche Showroom, Chicago, 2024
What Was, What Is
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, 2023

Curations
WRESTLE
The Mockbee, Cincinnati | Aug 2026
H.O.R.S.E
www.name-gallery.com | Apr 2026
GRWM
5th Floor Gallery, Chicago | Jan 2026

Publications
Contamination
Fresh Meat Journal | 2025
Array
Booooooom | 2025

Press
Drawing is Magic
Chicago Reader | 2026