Etching · Drawing · Painting — Paris
IvanRomero
I was born in Mexico and I've lived in France since 2009. Like everyone else I've drawn since I was a child — though I did also go to art school. I draw, paint and print the human body: what it endures and what it hides.
Work
01 — Studio, Paris
Techniques
02 — Three ways of working
Wood and copper
Printmaking
Printmaking is drawing extended: the line that ends up becoming expression, as in every art.
I like cutting wood because you can feel the material — you touch the drawing with your hands — and because the material talks to you and gives orders: you don't put the gouge where you want, but where the wood allows. I started there and I keep going back.
Etching metal is different, and no less fascinating. The material is cold and the stroke stays marked in the plate; in exchange you can control the line, the darks and the blacks. But there are accidents too, and it's the accidents that make the experience of etching magic.
I print by hand, in short editions. Anatomical hearts mounted with a tin votive charm, masked wrestlers, xoloitzcuintle dogs: what I brought from Mexico, cut in Paris.
From life
Drawing
Drawing is the most primitive expression we have. Everyone draws — even before we can speak — and anyone who can write can draw.
I've drawn from life for as long as I can remember: sanguine for the weight of the body, white chalk on black paper for what's left when the light goes out, a red ballpoint for portraits that allow no corrections. Without lifting the hand: if the line goes wrong, the line stays.
Drawing calms me and stresses me, moves me and tires me; I love it, and I hate it when I want to draw and nothing comes. Conclusion: I don't command the drawing, the drawing commands me.
What I care about is that people draw — and that I never stop.
Canvas and big paper
Painting
Painting gives me freedom and holds me at the same time, from the eye to the hand. It makes me think before I put down colour. And inside my head there's a dialogue I barely take part in — it happens between my eye and my hand; I only prepare the materials and move the objects around.
Acrylic and charcoal on canvas for the lucha libre masks: the wrestler is the only figure who becomes more himself by covering his face. Pastel, watercolour and acrylic on paper for the six-foot bodies that no longer fit in a sketchbook. And now and then a window, a tree, a dog: whatever you can see from the studio.
Biography
03 — Path and exhibitions
Ivan Romero and Damien Valero — Vilcenart association stand
“I like sharing the moment and the mezcal, and learning things I can explore later when I'm working.”
I graduated from UNAM — from the National School of Fine Arts, now the Faculty of Art and Design — in Mexico City, and I worked in advertising as an art director. I settled in France in 2009.
Printmaking gave me the expression; wood gave me the material. Organic matter won't be bossed around: wood teaches you that the gouge doesn't go where you want it to, it goes where the grain lets it. It made me see, feel and think differently.
I've taught, too — drawing and art to children, teenagers, adults and older adults. The work isn't only to create, it's to make people believe: that anyone can draw.
When I first came to France I ran a Mexican bar. That's where I learned to mix cocktails with my favourite spirit, mezcal. Trazos y Tragos comes from there.
I'm sociable and fond of my pleasures. I make the most of every moment life lends me, preferably in company. Pleasure is drinking and drawing — or getting other people to drink and draw.
- 2026 “Dialogus”, group printmaking exhibition — Atelier Damien Valero, Vincennes (FR)
- 2025 “Du dessin à la gravure”, with Damien Valero — Atelier Damien Valero, Vincennes (FR)
- 2009 Moves to Paris
- [año] Graduated from the National School of Fine Arts, UNAM — Mexico City
La Mano
en Libertad
04 — Three workshops in Paris
La Mano en Libertad is my visual and social project: I want to show what I do, and what I can get other people to do. I train my eye and I help train other eyes, so that the hand can speak. Three workshops in Paris, each with its own place and rhythm.
The eye takes it in, the head thinks, and the hand draws in freedom.
Follow the workshop on Instagram — @lamanoenlibertad
The life drawing tradition
Drawing from the living body, as it has been done since antiquity: the oldest school there is, and still the best. Short poses, long poses, sanguine and charcoal.
Drawing is better together
This isn't a lecture, it's an evening out. People who've never met, music, a drink, and two hours looking at the same thing and drawing it each in their own way.
Everyone can draw
Anyone who can write can draw. The hand already knows — it's the head that gets in the way. You come to learn to let go, not to get it right — and it's the beginners who surprise themselves most.
Stay in the loop
Get the flyer before anyone else
Every time there's a new date I make a flyer. Leave your email and you'll get it as soon as it's ready — before it goes up on Instagram, while there are still places.
Follow the work
05 — Instagram
Two accounts, two different things. One is what Ivan makes; the other is what he makes with other people.
Contact
06 — Galleries, press, sessions
Direct
Instagram — @tivan.romero Instagram — @lamanoenlibertad Facebook — La Mano en LibertadFor galleries and spaces in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Berlin: full dossier and studio views on request.