Victor Romao

With an old car battery, tattered wires, lubricated jelly and smelling salts, this lusus naturae is woken by the distilled vitriolic work of Victor Romao!!  Testosterone fuelled anthropomorphic gangs wait at the  towns edge, at the four corners or in the back bush to bludgeon, maul and drag you into Victor's world.  Like the detailed styling of Julie Morstad, Victor's beautifully rendered prints almost hides and belies the ritualistic rural barbarism and captures the sublime violent allegories that underpin all of his works.  Having grown up in a small town and just having lived in one this past summer, I recognize full well the themes of fear, xenophobia, violence and knowing one's place as it coldcocks me and knocks me down to the beer stained floor. I awake in an abandoned shack with misshapen balaclavas, bits of rope and plaid-shirted clansmen indoctrinating me in their 'Southwestern Gothic' ways.  The fine detailed work will pull you in like a slick tourism brochure but look closer under the surface and see the true 'Mayberry' after the "We're Open" signs are turned off!  Victor's body(bag) of work, Southernwestern Gothic, can be seen @ Artcite until Febuary 18th.  Don't miss it!!  Best of all, he is Windsor's very own!  So support Local or we'll leave you in Detroit to really see the horror!