Whitney Romberg (she/her/hers) is a 4th generation Japanese American artist and activist. She creates works surrounding themes of self love, relationships, identity and healing. In her work, she aims to create a sense of community by organizing events, virtual workshops and festivals.  A California native, Whitney has also been involved in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles art communities as a featured artist as well as the organizer of Santa Cruz Zine Fest (2016-2018). Whitney holds a BA in art from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her concentrations were in photography, painting, and drawing.

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Artist Statement

A lot of my work is informed by ideas of identity, self love and healing for queer women of color. Women of color have been subjected to unwanted identities since forever, so my work aims to create a calming, liberating space where we can be shown in our own image as we navigate this world that wasn’t built for us. I feature a lot of organic imagery in my work namely flowers and other elements of nature. A lot of people see these as inherently beautiful or fragile, but for me they are symbols of resistance. Growing up in a Japanese household, I learned early on the ideas of impermanence and renewal. Plants will grow back even after they’ve been nearly destroyed, and to me that’s
incredible. All of the figures in my work aim to redefine from what current pop culture considers to be “conventionally attractive”. I love to feature body hair and stretch marks because along with our skin tone, we have been taught to demonize these parts that make us uniquely us. I think that it’s time we change that narrative. - Whitney Romberg

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