TheCollector’s Senior Editor, Anna Sexton, and writer Greg Beyer had the pleasure of sitting down with artist Romulo Royo to discuss his art, his inspiration, and his current projects. Here’s the video interview:
Romulo Royo is one of the biggest names in the world of contemporary fantasy art. Born into an artistic family in 1976 in Zaragoza, Spain, his aptitude for painting was clear from a young age, and it was certain that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and have a successful career as a fantasy artist.
As a young artist, his influences included H.R. Giger, Anselm Kiefer, and Alejandro Jodorowsky. From 1995 to 1999, his career as a professional artist took off when he created illustrations for Spanish comics publisher Norma Editorial. His illustrations graced the covers of comic books and novels in Germany, Italy, and Russia.
In 2000, he began work as a professional painter, and his career quickly took off. His work was displayed along with other artists within Meta Project, which has a large and popular circuit throughout Europe and Japan. From there, his work began to be displayed in private galleries and museums in Europe and the United States; Romulo soon established himself as one of the foremost fantasy artists of his generation.
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Throughout his career, he has teamed up many times with his father, Luis Royo, on several projects. One of the most spectacular collaborations came in 2006 when the two artists traveled to Moscow to paint the domed ceiling of a mansion.
Romulo’s style is fluid and evokes the idea of gazing into mysterious and enigmatic places. His works often feature beautiful women, especially in portrait form, surrounded by dystopian aesthetics, which creates a fascinating juxtaposition of life and death, beauty and destruction, and hope in parallel with despair.
At the time of the interview, the Komorebi Eterno exhibition had been on view at the gallery Laberinto Gris in Zaragoza from April 17 through July 31, 2023. Komorebi is the Japanese term for shafts of sunlight streaming through leaves, while eterno is the Spanish word for everlasting or eternal. Thus, the exhibition was a collection of themed illustrations and paintings with orientalist imagery that speak to this idea.
A Selection of Romulo Royo’s Works:
