New York based designer and painter, Victor Roman recently for the first time exhibiting his work, WWW. a project Victor has been working for a while. Different cowboy silhouettes, along with illustrations of cowboys on the world wide web. Comparing the wild wild west to the wild wild web, Victor finds similarities between them and expresses them into paintings, large scale canvases, and a beautiful censored blanket. I sat down with Victor to talk about his approach and thought process with his works.
How did everything go with the WWW. show?
I was incredible! The turnout might have been the most eyes I have ever seen on my work. Truly a blessing. Going into it, it was the first public showing of WWW. series that I have been working on for quite some time.
How love have you been working on this series, is it ongoing?
As a whole, I have been working on the series for about 2 years. Throughout this time I’ve been conceptually putting the parts together to make a cohesive series and yeah, I’m trying to find and explore the similarities between both landscapes of the Wild Wild West and the World Wide Web will be something I shall continue.
What are some similarities you find?
Some of the similarities lie in the lawlessness found both landscapes. In example, throughout the digital landscape (particularly social media) we have platforms that demonstrate violence, unfiltered communication, bullying, assault and robbery. These exact characteristics can be found throughout the Wild Wild West. Throughout creating the works, my thought process is constantly evolving. So now after showcasing the WWW. Works exploring those ideas I started to explore the idea of the lack of representation throughout all these spaghetti westerns and western frontier in general. Especially due to our current climate and our country’s history and how that idea plays in our digital landscape, and explores those unfortunate similarities.
That is very true. Those gradient cowboy profile pieces did you carve them yourself?
The cowboy silhouettes are fabricated in Brooklyn using birchwood and plywood. Then when they arrive at my studio, I hand stretched them with canvas. Similar to Tom Wesselman, Kaws, and Josh Sperling. The shapes were a huge challenge for me and my practice. I was lucky enough to receive guidance from Josh Sperling. An artist who uses custom shapes and vivid colors. These days it’s pretty hard to receive guidance within the art community. So I was super grateful of his support and guidance.
That’s amazing you got Josh’s help they look so beautiful!
“Works exploring those ideas I started to explore the idea of the lack of representation throughout all these spaghetti westerns and western frontier in general.”
Thanks so much!
Did you do those ceramics yourself? And are they for sale? I need that AOL one.
I did not hand mold the vases. In fact they are actually a Collection of sourced vases found in multiple thrift stores found in Buffalo, DC, Connecticut,
PA, and New Jersey. There’s a few left from the show that are still for sale I can def send you a quick price list of what I have available.
Amazing, I love the colors you used with those. Yes, I need that price list. Other than the show, what are some projects you are currently working on?
At the moment, I’m working on a piece for an auction coming up at the children’s museum. Then doing more works on paper to explore how these ideas translate.
That sounds great! You also run a design studio, Buena Studio?
Yes, me and my partner/girlfriend, Bianca, started our own creative studio out of our apartment in Inwood Manhattan. We have been in business for 9 months and it’s been quite a journey thus far.
