Aubrey Roemer's Global Community Painting Projects Span Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Greece

Aubrey Roemer's artistic practice centers on community engagement through painting, addressing social and environmental issues worldwide. Her work began in 2013 with the "Demimonde" exhibition at Pumps strip club in Brooklyn, curated with Laura McCarthy, featuring paintings of dancers and works by Brooklyn-based artist Jesse McCloskey. In 2014, she created the "Leviathan" series in Montauk, painting portraits of local residents on donated fabrics installed on the beach. Supported by World Connect, Roemer traveled to Nicaragua in 2015 to collaborate with La Isla Foundation, painting portraits of deceased sugarcane workers on discarded sacks and creating protest banners about chronic kidney disease (CKDu) in Chichigalpa. She recently returned to display these works in an abandoned church. In Indonesia, she completed the "Maccini Sombala" project, tracing hands onto sails of a phinisi sailboat, with proceeds funding a solar-powered trash collection wheel for the Mataram River. In Greece, she embedded in a refugee shelter on Lesvos, creating 99 prayer flags titled "Khamsa" from reclaimed life preservers and emergency blankets, tracing hands of 66 women and adding their eyes, with male migrants writing on 33 flags. The work was exhibited at 203 Gallery in Shanghai and IFAC Gallery in Athens, with proceeds going to Greek NGO Desmos. Roemer's projects foster awareness and empowerment in marginalized communities, illustrating art's role in imaginative resistance to global issues.