Pablo Soler Frost
Late Roman Paintings
Galerie Pepe is pleased to present Late Roman Paintings an exhibition by writer and artist Pablo Soler Frost (b. 1965, Mexico City). August 28th - October 25th, 2025
Roman houses had no windows. Light entered their enclosures through skylights, doors, and open courtyards. Their houses and temples were black or white cubes. It was natural that they would want to decorate their walls with figures that reminded them of the reality beyond the walls, whether the reality outside, with its forests and meadows, or the reality within and its mysteries, even those of the underworld.
Not much remains of Roman painting. It was not one of their favorite arts, as Architecture was. Or Sculpture.
What remains, as in the case of the Etruscans, is funerary painting: the late, expressive faces on the coffins at Al Fayum, for example. Two exceptions, both hidden, one by ash, the other by persecution: the frescoes of Pompeii and the villas around Vesuvius, and the painting of the catacombs.
Roman painting, it is said, began in imitation of theatrical sets: again, Pompeii is a prime example. But those who knew knew well that painting came from the gods, from nature, or from the Egyptians. In any case, they took advantage of the plastic expression of color to illuminate their rooms.
There are not many written references, classical or late Roman (or, to use Peter Brown's term, "late Antiquity"), to painting, but some entire books, such as Philostratus's Descriptions of Pictures, have survived; more passing references are found in Petronius's Satyricon, where, while walking to the banquet, he mentions frescoes with scenes from the Iliad.
There are those who maintain that Rome, or the influence of the great city of the she-wolf, has never ended in the West, not even today, which would make many people today belatedly Romans. Perhaps this explains the title of the exhibition, the first painting exhibition by Pablo Soler Frost.
Roman houses had no windows. Light entered their enclosures through skylights, doors, and open courtyards. Their houses and temples were black or white cubes. It was natural that they would want to decorate their walls with figures that reminded them of the reality beyond the walls, whether the reality outside, with its forests and meadows, or the reality within and its mysteries, even those of the underworld.
Not much remains of Roman painting. It was not one of their favorite arts, as Architecture was. Or Sculpture.
What remains, as in the case of the Etruscans, is funerary painting: the late, expressive faces on the coffins at Al Fayum, for example. Two exceptions, both hidden, one by ash, the other by persecution: the frescoes of Pompeii and the villas around Vesuvius, and the painting of the catacombs.
Roman painting, it is said, began in imitation of theatrical sets: again, Pompeii is a prime example. But those who knew knew well that painting came from the gods, from nature, or from the Egyptians. In any case, they took advantage of the plastic expression of color to illuminate their rooms.
There are not many written references, classical or late Roman (or, to use Peter Brown's term, "late Antiquity"), to painting, but some entire books, such as Philostratus's Descriptions of Pictures, have survived; more passing references are found in Petronius's Satyricon, where, while walking to the banquet, he mentions frescoes with scenes from the Iliad.
There are those who maintain that Rome, or the influence of the great city of the she-wolf, has never ended in the West, not even today, which would make many people today belatedly Romans. Perhaps this explains the title of the exhibition, the first painting exhibition by Pablo Soler Frost.
Pablo Soler Frost,
Peace, 2025,
Acrylic on canvas
, 49.5 x 40 cm,
19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in
(PSF-001)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Isola, 2025
, Acrylic on canvas
, 49.5 x 40 cm,
19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.
(PSF-002)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Casa degli Serpenti, 2025,
Acrylic on canvas
, 49.5 x 40 cm
, 19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.
(PSF-003)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Harvest, 2025
, Acrylic on canvas
, 49.5 x 40 cm
, 19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.
(PSF-004)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Jimmie Durham, 2025,
Acrylic on canvas
, 49.5 x 40 cm,
19 1/2 x 15 3/4 in.
(PSF-006)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Acteón bramando a sus perros su nombre, 2025,
Acrylic on canvas
, 49.5 x 60 cm
, 19 1/2 x 23 1/2 in
(PSF-007)
Pablo Soler Frost
, Altre Mundi, 2025,
Acrylic on canvas,
94 x 35 cm,
37 x 13 3/4 in
(PSF-008)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Casa dei Misteri, 2025
, Acrylic on canvas
, 30 x 40 cm
, 11 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
(PSF-009)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Esta tierra que guarda, 2025
, Acrylic on canvas
, 40 x 49.5 cm
, 15 3/4 x 19 1/2 in
(PSF-010)
Pablo Soler Frost
, Tacitus, Germania, 2025
, Acrylic on canvas,
40 x 49.5 cm
, 15 3/4 x 19 1/2 in.
(PSF-011)
Pablo Soler Frost,
Roma, 2025
, Acrylic on canvas
, 25 x 30 cm
, 9 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
(PSF-012)
Pablo Soler Frost
, Ítaca, 2025
, Acrylic on canvas
, 25 x 30 cm,
9 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
(PSF-013)
Pablo Soler Frost (b. 1965, Mexico City) is a writer and artist. His published novels include Legión (1991); Vampiros aztecas (2015) y El desconocido (2025), as well as short stories, poetry and numerous essays. He has written about notable contemporary artists and translated works by Walpole, Scott, Newman, Conrad, Jeffers, among others and has exhibited his drawings at kurimanzutto gallery in Mexico City.
Amsterdam 123 B, Col. Hipódromo CondesaMexico City, Mexico 06100