The Color Holds The Room
JANUARY 21 - MARCH 12, 2026
BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
TenBerke invites you to our Winter Artist Program exhibition by Roger Danilo Carmona titled “The Color Holds the Room.” Please join us for the opening reception with the artist on Wednesday, January 21 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. The exhibition will be open from January 21 – March 12, 2026, during our gallery hours Wednesday and Fridays from 11:00am – 5:00pm at TenBerke Architects, 41 Madison on the 17th Floor. We are honored to display this exhibition in our gallery space and hope you will join us. Please see below for more information about Roger Carmona and his exhibition.
About the Exhibition
Roger Danilo Carmona's project, “The Color Holds the Room," at TenBerke Architects from January 21 to March 12, 2026, is an assessment of color as an active, anthropomorphic entity, a character that commands and orchestrates the space it inhabits. The selected paintings and drawings viewed present stages, rooms, or landscapes where color is not just a descriptive element but the protagonist and the mechanism of language.
Artist Statement
My practice, based in Brooklyn, is deeply informed by my birthplace in León, Nicaragua, and my upbringing in Hialeah, FL, which instilled in me an understanding of language's role as a tool for connection and resilience. I approach painting as a site for documentation and thought experiments, often constructing a "Memory Palace" to process themes of miscommunication and anxiety. This mapping of the mind’s internal framework echoes Roberto Matta’s early Surrealist explorations of the "Inscape" and "Psychological Morphologies," where color acts as a foundational, energetic force.
Color is an influential, constructive force that instantly structures perception. It performs three core actions in the viewing experience: it sets the political and general mood; it reveals the human significance of the subject; and it defines the limits and character of the setting. I aim to isolate the exact moment when the material color transcends pigment to become the story itself.
In a work like Phony Painters, for example, a single field of high-chroma, chunky, dry Raw Umber, highlighted with YnMin Blue, doesn't describe a sky; it serves as the setting's pensive border, automatically establishing the space's attitude. My works are places where color performs. In Art School Scam, the specific stiffness and texture of a background craquelure is not only atmospheric light, but the protagonist's action—a blunt, expressive, and contradictory barrier that defines the very subject matter it describes.
My process is supported by two pillars: the daily practice of note-taking in my sketchbook and a profound material knowledge. This expertise was honed over nearly two decades as the General Manager of Kremer Pigments NYC. As a graduate of the Bard College MFA program and now the CEO and Co-founder of the New York Pigment Co., the ability to manipulate material allows me to blend and prepare pigments to serve my narrative needs, letting the medium's character dictate the final subject matter alongside the conceptual freedom of my drawing practice. over nearly two decades as the General Manager of Kremer Pigments NYC. A graduate of the Bard College MFA program, Carmona is now the CEO and Co-founder of the New York Pigment Co. This material expertise allows him to blend and prepare pigments to serve his narrative needs, creating a finished subject matter dictated as much by the medium's character as by the conceptual freedom of his sketchbook drawing practice.
About the Artist
Carmona’s work has been exhibited at institutions including Gladstone Gallery (New York), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Chicago), Underdonk (Brooklyn), and Galeria Sansamina (Italy). He has been recognized as a fundamental figure in the painting community, described in a recent Hyperallergic tribute as "one of the most trusted paint experts in New York City." His insights have been featured on The Met’s Immaterial podcast and in Pascale Bouhénic’s documentary on Mark Rothko. Carmona is an Artist-in-Registry at White Columns and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Urban Soils Institute, making artwork from paint made from foraged earth and dyes on the island. He was manager of the renowned pigment store Kremer Pigments at their New York location on West 29th Street for 18 years until its closing last month and was featured in an article about the shop. He will be opening a new pigment store called New York Pigment Co. in February.
Events
TenBerke Architects
41 Madison Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10010
Main 212 229 9211
Events@TenBerke.com TenBerke.com
Stop by for a studio visit if you’d like to see more work. My studio is located at my pigment shop: New York Pigment Co. at 247 West 29th Street bet. 7 & 8 Ave.
Roger Danilo Carmona
studio@rogercarmona.com
917.455.2591