A student from the Meskwaki Settlement School mimics a pose of the boxer pictured in a
photograph titled “We are Native Women” by Cara Romero at the Figge Museum of Art
Thursday, March 6, during a special showing for the students. CREDIT TODD WELVAERT
Visitors to the “Cara and Diego Romero: Tales of Futures Past” exhibit at the Figge Art Museum will find powerful, thought-provoking works by acclaimed indigenous artists that explore the diversity of the indigenous culture through shared yet distinct lenses. The nationally traveling collection, organized by the Davenport museum, marries Diego Romero’s pottery and lithographs and […]
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Visitors to the “Cara and Diego Romero: Tales of Futures Past” exhibit at the Figge Art Museum will find powerful, thought-provoking works by acclaimed indigenous artists that explore the diversity of the indigenous culture through shared yet distinct lenses.The nationally traveling collection, organized by the Davenport museum, marries Diego Romero's pottery and lithographs and Cara Romero's photographs and it features a new collaborative piece created exclusively for this exhibition. Two days before the show opened its doors on Saturday, March 8, the couple hosted a preview for a group of teens from Iowa’s Meskwaki Settlement School. The Tama, Iowa, school is operated by the Sac & Fox Tribe of the Mississipp (Meskwaki Nation) and the Bureau of Indian Education.Including local tribe members is important, Ms. Romero told the QCBJ, because it "reminds nonnative people that we are here, living in Iowa, and in Davenport.” At the same time, she said “It also brings together other Native American artists from across the country, many of them living in isolated communities.”She added “We have so much diversity between tribes. We also have some shared struggles and some shared histories. No matter where we’re from in North America, we have been through termination, relocation, reservations, boarding schools. And we’ve also seen triumph, and experienced renaissance.”Artists Cara and Diego Romero talk with a group of students from the Meskwaki Settlement School in Tama, Iowa, at the Figge Art Museum on Thursday, March 6. The couple’s work on exhibit there explores Indigenous cultures through contemporary themes. CREDIT TODD WELVAERTThroughout it all, Ms. Romero said art “is something that we’ve been able to continue to make despite whatever is going on in the world.” This exhibit illustrates that with an arresting Diego Romero bowl that shows indigenous people being slain as a priest looks on and an eye-popping photograph from Cara Romero’s “American Girl” series. It features an Indigenous woman in traditional Native American dress standing in a Barbie-pink room dripping with a California vibe.The Figge exhibit featuring those works and more is made possible, in part, through the generous support of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Foundation. The local supporting sponsor is Modern Woodmen of America. The contributing sponsor is the Carolyn Levine & Leonard Kallio Trust. The media sponsor is the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal.
A ‘special exhibition’
Figge Co-Curator Vanessa Sage called organizing “Tales of Futures Past” a privilege.“Cara and Diego are incredibly generous as artists and as collaborators,” she said. “This is a special exhibition for them, as the first nationally traveling exhibition focusing on the dialogue between their artwork, and for the Figge because we have the honor of sharing it with audiences nationwide.” To curate the exhibit, Ms. Sage added “I worked closely with the artists to gain a deeper understanding of their work individually, their relationship as artists and partners, and what they feel are central themes shared between their artwork.”For example, both artists told the QCBJ they have found inspiration in William Moulton Marston’s comic book creation Wonder Woman. She’s also on full display at a Figge exhibit that features a Diego Romero lithograph depicting his wife Cara as Wonder Woman. Mr. Romero said the piece demonstrates his view of both the character and his Cara as “earth goddesses.” Not far away is a massive Cara Romero photograph of a Native American woman wearing traditional Wonder Woman garb but sporting moccasins, beaded panel and earrings, braids and a feather. Ms. Romero grew up watching the television version of “Wonder Woman” starring Lynda Carter. “I wanted to be her. I think I thought she was Native growing up as a little girl,” she said. The TV series also was her “first interaction with ideas of feminism and gender strength and the strength of women and that was something I identified with in the Native community. Our women are taught to be really, really strong.” That includes her grandmother who was chairwoman of their tribe. “They really held it together through a lot of really painful history” while keeping their communities intact, she said. “I find them heroes of Native Americans and maybe unsung heroes of America.”The Romeros – who have been married for 13 years and are parents of two sons – also use their art to “speak to things that are important in our own communities; things that we know to be true through tradition or through the histories that we talk about,” Ms. Romero said. “We’ve had a pretty similar journey in the arts and I think it was that journey that brought us eventually together,” Mr. Romero added.Both have a Native American parent and an anglo parent. Ms. Romero is a member of the Chemehuevi Tribe and grew up on a reservation near Mojave, California. Her husband is a member of the Cochiti Pueblo Tribe who grew up in Berkley, California. Both, however, attended the Institute of Native American Arts (INAA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, though not at the same time. “That was a thing that really changed a lot of lives and a lot of paths and journeys,” Ms. Romero said of INAA. “It was really special to be around a lot of Native people in tribal college because we’re often from really isolated communities, so it was the first time that we could learn about each other and shared struggles and shared successes.” For the Romeros, she said, "That was really where our love for art and making art in service to Native communities really was sealed for the rest of our careers.”
Comics inspire art
Mr. Romero seeks to do that through pottery that is a mix of traditional Membres and Greek styles to which he said, “I applied my own concepts and narratives through comic books.” That unexpected pairing can be seen in his clay works as well as Mr. Romero’s “Pueb Fiction" lithograph now on display at the Figge. It was based on Quentin Tarantino’s film “Pulp Fiction,” and was a popular piece among the Meskwaki youth, who toured the museum exhibit in downtown Davenport.A primary motivation of that piece and others, Mr. Romero said, is “to get people to talk and think. I’ve built my career on that. I’ve been blessed with a voice and I have to use that voice responsibly,” he added, before sharing this proverb made popular by Stan Lee’s Spider Man series: “With great power comes great responsibility.”The Romeros share that sense of responsibility to tell the story of Indigenous peoples.Ms. Romero, for example, dreamed as a youth of studying to be an anthropologist so she could write textbooks that would restore Native American history being erased from schoolbooks. In the course of her studies, however, it seemed as though Native Americans had already disappeared. “Everything was in the past tense,” she said. “Everything was about digging up old sites and I was very interested in just screaming ‘We’re still here and we have these incredible experiences and our communities are beautiful and our food ways are beautiful and our dances are still happening and people are learning the language.’”She found a better way to talk about those and other “really difficult subjects” after “stumbling” into a black and white photography class.Today, Ms. Romero said, “My work is very hopeful. I hope that people are drawn to both Diego’s and my work and that they are drawn to our humanity as Native people.”Ms. Sage, the curator, urged Quad Citians to see the show before it moves on from the Figge on June 8.“I hope people enjoy it. I really hope the native youth get to see themselves. It’s not often that we get to go into a space and see a contemporary reflection,” she said.“I am proudest when I see people, especially families and young people, in the exhibition enjoying the artwork,” Ms. Sage added. “You can see the magnetic pull that the works have and the power that art has to broaden people's perspectives in action.”She encouraged Quad Citians to bring their friends and family with them to the museum. “The meaning and impact of the works is strengthened when you have people around you to discuss what you see and what you feel while viewing them.”
AT A GLANCE – Tales of Futures Past
The exhibit featuring Cara and Diego Romero launched on Saturday, March 8, and continues through Sunday, June 8, in the third floor gallery of the Figge Art Museum, 225 W. Second St., Davenport.
It is organized by the Figge and is the first nationally traveling exhibition to showcase the couple’s works in dialogue.
It features 18 of Mr. Romero’s pottery pieces and lithographs and 20 of Ms. Romero’s photographs.
The tour will go through the summer of 2026. Stops include Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California, the Albuquerque Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and an as yet unnamed venue.
Dates to save include the Figge’s monthly Second Saturday, when admission is free to attendees from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. And Thursday, April 10, when the Figge will host the Cara and Diego Romero: Tales of Futures Past Panel Discussion. Bar opens at 5 p.m. and the program featuring panelists from the Great Plains Action Society begins at 6:30 p.m.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
Not far away is a massive Cara Romero photograph of a Native American woman wearing traditional Wonder Woman garb but sporting moccasins, beaded panel and earrings, braids and a feather.
Ms. Romero grew up watching the television version of “Wonder Woman” starring Lynda Carter. “I wanted to be her. I think I thought she was Native growing up as a little girl,” she said. The TV series also was her “first interaction with ideas of feminism and gender strength and the strength of women and that was something I identified with in the Native community. Our women are taught to be really, really strong.”
That includes her grandmother who was chairwoman of their tribe. “They really held it together through a lot of really painful history” while keeping their communities intact, she said. “I find them heroes of Native Americans and maybe unsung heroes of America.”
The Romeros – who have been married for 13 years and are parents of two sons – also use their art to “speak to things that are important in our own communities; things that we know to be true through tradition or through the histories that we talk about,” Ms. Romero said.
“We’ve had a pretty similar journey in the arts and I think it was that journey that brought us eventually together,” Mr. Romero added.
Both have a Native American parent and an anglo parent. Ms. Romero is a member of the Chemehuevi Tribe and grew up on a reservation near Mojave, California. Her husband is a member of the Cochiti Pueblo Tribe who grew up in Berkley, California. Both, however, attended the Institute of Native American Arts (INAA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, though not at the same time.
“That was a thing that really changed a lot of lives and a lot of paths and journeys,” Ms. Romero said of INAA. “It was really special to be around a lot of Native people in tribal college because we’re often from really isolated communities, so it was the first time that we could learn about each other and shared struggles and shared successes.”
For the Romeros, she said, "That was really where our love for art and making art in service to Native communities really was sealed for the rest of our careers.”
