Biography

Romulo Royo, born in Zaragoza (Spain), is an artist of international standing.

At the age of eighteen, he began his professional career in the art world through illustration, where he made covers for numerous magazines and novels for international publishers such as Eura (Italy), Rad Moskbay (Russia), Bastei (Germany) but in 2001 he decided to turn and devote himself fully to the world of painting, which he also began at this time.

He has solo exhibitions thanks to the Meta Project that travels through Valencia, A Coruña (Spain), Verona, Milan (Italy), Frankfurt (Germany), Tokyo (Japan). In turn, his work is exhibited at the Museo Pablo Serrano, Museo Provincial de Huesca, Museo de Teruel, and published in various art magazines such as Trebede, Bonart, Exit, Lapiz or Mu Magazine among others. American Express commissions him some Limited Edition Lithographs gathered in a folder and titled Perpetual Present.

From 2004 onwards he exhibits in important private galleries, Foundations, Museums and international fairs, such as Art Forum Berlin, FIAC, Los Angeles Art Show, ARCO Madrid, Art Miami, CIGE Beijing China, ART International Instanbul or ART Wynwood, among others.

In 2006 he undertook a trip to Moscow with Luis Royo to work on the great Medvedev Dome, in a castle in the middle of the icy Russian Taiga. The book Dome compiles the entire creative process of about seven months prior to the work, as well as all the physical and mental effort that the artists had to endure during their four-month stay on the scaffolding, painting the frescoes in oil.

During this period he made some series such as Siamese or Metal-Piel, composed of paintings and sculptures that are contemplated in prestigious spaces such as the National Museum Metelkova of Slovenia, Can Framis Museum of the Vila Casas Foundation in Barcelona, the X Biennial of the Martínez Guerricabeitia Foundation in the Museum of the City of Valencia, the Fran Daurel Foundation in Madrid, the Maeztu Museum in Estella or the IV Biennial of Contemporary Art in Moscow.

From 2009, his series Blackened Times, begins with an exhibition at the XXV Biennial of Alexandria of the National Museum of Alexandria to later travel to different countries. The Alcort Foundation commissions a 1500 kg aluminum sculpture, which they add to their collection and exhibit in the foundation’s gardens. The piece, Siameses, is included in the book by Romulo Royo titled Videncia, Velamiento y Ceguera, whose texts and exhibition curatorship were carried out by Fernando Castro Flórez.

That same year he collaborated with Luis Royo on the large format paintings for the oriental-tinged Dead Moon book, published worldwide together with an I-Ching deck with his images, among other multimedia products.

This collaboration, together with the previous one in Moscow, would give rise to a project that encompasses different disciplines, becoming a far-reaching multimedia project: Malefic Time. The initiative brings together several international books with paintings and illustrations, novels, sculptures made by Yamato (USA) and Nocturna (Spain), manga and merchandising such as calendars, published by Pyramid (Great Britain) or Sellers Publishing (USA), tarot cards by Fournier, role-playing games, video clips with Avalanch, etc.

Published in Spectrum XVIII The Best In Contemporary Fantastic Art, the work entitled Llegará el día. He exhibits at the Santa Monica center accompanied by an edition of the book On-Off and in galleries such as Miguel Marcos Gallery (Spain), MDA Gallery (Sweden), in Fnac, which itinerates through different cities, Schwalbe 54 Gallery (Frankfurt), etc. and his work is also shown in numerous fairs, such as ARCO Madrid where he exhibits regularly since 2012.

From 2012 to 2016 the three books of the Malefic Time trilogy are published: Apocalypse, 110 Katanas and Akelarre of international circulation translated into more than eight languages and published by Cross Cult (Germany), Bragelonne (France), Norma Editorial (Spanish and English), Rizzoli Lizard (Italy), Azbuka (Russia).

Between 2014 and 2020 he makes series such as Goddesses of Nibiru or Flowers and Thorns that are exhibited in galleries such as Kavachinina Contemporary Gallery (Miami), Galeria Miguel Marcos (Spain), Galería Huberty & Breyne (Brussels) among others and her works for the first time are auctioned in well-known auction houses such as Christie’s Paris and Brussels, Ketterer Kunst (Munich), Galartis (Switzerland) or the Organized by The Womanity Foundation, auction conducted by the renowned Simon de Pury. Prestigious galleries such as Gagosian, Miguel Marcos and Aquavella, among others, took part in it. Also, during those years and the following ones, he has been present in the previously mentioned fairs such as Art Miami, Gige Bejing China, ART International Istanbul, ARCO Madrid, etc. and fantasy fairs such as Fantasy Basel or New York Comic-Con.

His most recent exhibitions include “Art Generations” in the Palazzo Ducale in the Lucca Comics & Games Fair 2023, in Italy, curated by Mauro Bruni, being the most prestigious exhibition space in the world dedicated to fantasy, or the 2024 exhibition “The Dream of Fantasy” in the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) in Barcelona, centered on the genre of figurative fantasy art. Other venues that have exhibited his pieces include the Hispano-Japanese Cultural Center of Salamanca, since historian and curator Jaime Romero Leo framed his work within “Neo-Japonism”, Pablo Serrano Museum and the Museum of History in Zaragoza, among others.

He has also created the character of Taarna for the cover of Heavy Metal comic book no. 3. Noteworthy as well is the presentation of his monographic book published by the international publisher The Guide Artists, which gathers the key aspects of his work and his most relevant series from recent years, further consolidating his work in the international arena with a careful edition that includes his main series, exhibitions and collaborations. Also significant is the interview conducted by Greg Beyer about the genre of Fantasy Art within contemporary art for The Collector, one of the most widely read online magazines in the world of culture, art, and history, cited by publications such as Bloomberg, BBC, The Washington Post, the Smithsonian, and the Getty Museum, among others.