Weaving together the energies derived from the stories that shape us is at the heart of René Romero Schuler’s enigmatic paintings and sculptures.
An American painter and sculptor, René Romero Schuler is known for her signature style of feminine figures that capture a sense of the human spirit. Verging towards abstraction, Schuler creates paintings and sculptures of anonymous female characters that capture the purest essence of humanity.
Schuler’s abstract figures are a reaction to the obsession with face value and effort to get beneath the surface of human existence. She explains: “Spirit is what connects all of humanity. Yet, the innate human nature that drives us to judge one another based on nothing more than face value is a notion that fascinates me and thoroughly influences my work. In every work I create, I strive to show the imperfection, stress and underlying beauty of the being I portray. There are no fine characteristics or clearly defined attributes to my figures they are everyone and no one. The meaning lies in the representation of the image, not the image or the “face value” itself.”
Schuler is represented by galleries in Canada, Europe and the USA, and she has exhibited in Asia, Europe and USA with many works acquired by museums and institutions. She is also a published writer and poet, with publications including; René Romero Schuler: Life and Works (2013); René Romero Schuler (2016); René Romero Schuler (2019) and Ladies (2024).
Schuler’s work is widely collected in the USA and generated an impressive million dollars plus in sales in 2024, so it won’t be a surprise if her star is in the ascendant in the global art world.
Culturalee spoke to Schuler as she prepared for her first exhibition of 2025 at Zolla Lieberman Gallery in Chicago in April.
You’ve been quoted as saying ‘I think all of us struggle with life challenges at one time or another’, and it’s this tension that you translate from life to art by creating paintings of anonymous figures as a reaction to the contemporary societal tendency to judge people by face value, rather than looking deeper beneath the surface. How do you distil the essence of a person into an anonymous portrait?
I think I can only answer that by saying that I am not really distilling. Rather, I am unravelling stories—my own and those of so many I encounter in life—and I express the emotions and energies in the works I create. The figures themselves are amalgams of woven stories and the ultimate energy of the piece is very much guided by what I intrinsically need in that moment, that day. Sometimes I need strength or confidence, sometimes I need to express my vulnerability. Ultimately, though, the figures are intentionally “pretty,” because, despite all the challenges, insecurities, and pains that life can bring, I feel it is so important to see ourselves as beautiful beings. Actually not despite them, but because of them! I spent far too much of my own life feeling “less than,” “ugly,” and “worthless” from things carried over from childhood. It has taken a great deal of work to get to where I am, and I want to share this with others (entirely too many) who need to believe this message.
You’ve made a big impact with collectors in the USA and your work generated over a million dollars in sales in 2024. What are your ambitions for 2025—would you like to conquer the global artworld now that you’ve had so much success in America?
I truly never think in those terms. I love creating. All I ever really think about is: How can I do it better? I want to create the absolute best work that I am capable of. The rest will follow. I believe that with all my heart.
What is the process behind your work—do you start with a real person and try to capture the most elemental parts of their psyche, or are all your figures imaginary?
All are imaginary. I weave together the energies that come from the stories that shape us, and what emerges from my paint is a whole new being who embodies all the balancing energies that I need from the work on that day.
You use a striking palette and bold mark-making in your paintings. Were you self-taught or did you have a formal artistic training?
I am self-taught, though I believe I had a tremendous education working alongside some of the greatest artistic mentors along the way. I have always sought knowledge along the way and what I did not know I learned, studied, practiced and mastered. I have a very tenacious spirit and that has powered me through all my life.
There are echoes of Giacometti and an existential feeling to your sculptures, and their overarching femininity recalls Degas’ Ballerina figures. How do you translate the anonymous figures in your paintings to sculpture, and do you start with sketches or go straight to the sculpting phase?
I almost never sketch. I never really thought about why, but I think it has to do with how much I love what comes “organically” in an art practice. I love the “happy accidents” that can occur along the way and discovering how that can direct the work in ways I might not expect. It’s almost like allowing something bigger than myself to dictate things. The sculptures came about through exploration in my desire to bring my figures into the third dimension. The steel wire became my favourite medium, as I feel that the woven wire mimics the mark-making in my paintings, and the way light passes through them aligns with my feeling of humans as spiritual beings.
Why did you decide to focus on feminine characters and avoid the masculine?
I never really thought about it too much. It has not been deliberate, but I think it has to do with me being female and my work is an expression of my perceptions of all I experience in this world. I would also say that my “mission” (so to speak) is to empower women. We deserve that!
You had a challenging childhood and experienced homelessness at one point in your life. What was the path you took to becoming an artist, and was this a cathartic process in any way?
Everything I’ve experienced has been a catharsis in some form or another. Life is about learning, and it is also (sadly, sometimes) about surviving. Being homeless was extraordinarily terrifying, lonely, painful, filthy, and tragically sad. I got through, though, with help from friends (I was in high school), and at 17, I got an apartment. I’ve lived a lot of lives along the way, but art was always a constant, and I got started by calling companies from the phonebook and asking if they wanted paintings for their lobbies or offices. That blossomed into a long-time career in decorative painting, murals, and eventually becoming a commercial large-scale muralist.
Any tips for young artists starting out?
Do the best work you know how to do. That is all any of us can do. You have to stick with what you are doing, and be thoroughly dedicated not just to your practice, but to succeeding! And always be positive in how you communicate to everyone. Positive breeds positive—that’s just science!
What projects and exhibitions are you working on in 2025? My first show of 2025 will be with Zolla Lieberman Gallery in Chicago, opening on April 4th. Right now, all roads lead to that. There are several others coming up, and I always recommend checking out my Instagram @reneromeroschuler or my website as events are constantly being added to my calendar. I can tell you right now, though, that this year is jammed with lots of great things! My travel calendar includes Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Charleston, Lancaster, and…those are the ones I am remembering from the top of my head, so, as you can guess, my studio time is very, very precious!
