The Bakery Atlanta was thrilled to present Offspring of Her’s, a solo show by Debanhi Romero on view Thursday, August 20th through Sunday, August 30th at The Supermarket.

Romero’s show primarily included a collection of paintings and ceramic work. Her work explored the idea of motherhood, femininity, and their connection to nature.

Here are a few words from the artist about the show:

ON ART

We stand surrounding a body of work asking it to tell us what it is and why should it matter.
We push on a button that hasn't even been manufactured.
We scare the work from itself and send it to its death.

Must our actions be always intentional, must a masterpiece come from a mastermind?

Why should we limit ourselves to greatness, when there's so much discovery in commonality? I agree that an artist should be able to verbalize their work, but the idea of having to defend it before it flowers I’m sure has kept a lot of interesting work into only a thought.

In my brain, my painting is formulated by two sections- the tight and measured figures consequent of a reference image, and the loose and fluid portions of additive progression-layers.

Neither of them depend on each other, but I have found great compositional material when mixing the two.

My painting feels like an entity of its own. I once got asked if I enjoyed painting more than the finished product? - and that was the easiest question, because of course i preferred the process of painting a thousand times, to the factual truth that by the end of it i would have obtained one more item to collect in my designated corner. I believe the end product is for the people- like a funeral premise- but speak about painting... painting is for me.

ON THE BODY OF WORK
This body of work follows a series of paintings of my family members prioritizing the women's experience. The collection has been mostly created within the last two years.

Without an intended plan, what I create always ties to each other. Interesting when the work reminds me I am the common link. My way of processing and creating information is all filtered through my experience with immigration, womanhood, culture, nature and being alive in 2026.

Art is a primordial teller of its time.

The ornamental fluidity and use of color derives from traditional Mexican expression. These cultural influences are stretched into a metaphysical lens, creating energetic and rhythmic successions throughout the collection

ON THE BIG PIECE: La Madre que Todo Lo Sabe
Se siente como un título incriminatorio, pero está dicho con mucha apreciación.

A family portrait, a memory. I often feel as though I'm worldbuilding. Where does a distanced family belong but in a painting?

Pictured in this painting is my mother and father in the bottom left corner. Following my cousin Montse, and by the tree Genny with her husband Martin. On the right side canvas is mi tía Lupita, my cousin’s mother, and on the background my grandmother with my uncle Martin. Centered in the composition is a tree, a mother, the conduit that maintains the ecosystem of continuous life. There are five mother figures present. And two of them are mine.

I cater each section of the canvas with an entire little scene- active actions of simultaneity. Symbolically present is my brother and I, in the shape of eggs placed on the right top branch. And nearby on their left is a reptile branch ready to eat away the eggs. The tree bubbles up into a beating heart, and births water, flora and fauna- holding the nuclear source of life in this ecosystem.

The recycling actions of the ecosystem mimic the procreational effects of a familial lineage. Five generations of mothers acting equality to maintain the balance in their given environment.

To our mother, who grows it all for us. Who sustains us and allows us life.
To my mother, who built my body in her. Who sustained me and allowed me life.

Mothers are the anchors of the families.

ON THE PROCESS: La Madre Que Todo lo Sabe
I originally was simply painting a family portrait from a picture, my figures are typically drawn from reference so the beginning went quite normal. After some rendering, the horizontal landscape of people didn’t feel sufficient- it was too obvious, it was transferring an existing digital image into a predetermined painted one, and I do not do that. It caused enough turbulence until I turned the canvas vertically and added a second canvas. I set my reference picture aside and allowed the canvas to respond to me. It asked me to be more present in the room, so I found materials to push dimension and texture- cardboard, old clothing, branches, cable and egg shells founded the skeletal structure to allow me to paint the skin of the piece on top.

The painting and I, we conversed. Sometimes she talks and I listen. Sometimes I respond.

At some point I stepped back and I had created an environment for my family to fit in. Up till that point my attempt for a painted family portrait had been awkwardly put on hold. Once I saw I had created a space for them to be in, I knew exactly where to locate each of them along the painting- how they would interact and lose solid continuity to mesh with their given environment and forever home.