Ricardo Romero (b. 1981, Évora) is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist currently living and working in Leiria, Portugal.

Since 1994, under the pseudonym/tag “Ship,” he has explored mural painting in its expressive and conceptual potential. Early on, he adopted an educational and pedagogical approach, using graffiti and street art as tools for engagement with young people and children. He has led numerous workshops and short courses focused on artistic experimentation and creative development.

His practice—rooted in urban art languages— painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation. Since 2004, he has participated in exhibitions, public art projects, festivals, and publications. His work has been featured in urban art projects, exhibitions, and collections across countries such as Brazil, Kenya, Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, among others.

Over the past decade, Romero has developed a poetic approach to painting, creating visually meditative compositions that evoke memory, silence, and presence. This research led to the development of a unique personal technique he named “romerography”—a pictorial process that draws from and deconstructs traditional graphic techniques such as stencil and screen printing. Through manual layering, fragmentation, and the deliberate inclusion of gesture, interruption, and absence, each painting becomes a singular visual poem, balancing the figurative and the abstract.

In addition to his pictorial work, Romero creates large-scale, innovative public sculptures that act as visual anchors and symbolic markers within the urban environment. He has also produced installations that express a global and universal language, where poetry plays a central role, merging spatial experience with poetic expression.

Romero is also a curator and lead producer of several public art initiatives, including the social intervention project Projeto Matilha, as well as director of Walls Gallery and M Gallery & Studio in Leiria. He is the artistic director of UIVO – Ecos de Arte com Animais e Gente Dentro, and curator of numerous street art festivals including Paredes com História (Leiria), Contempl’arte (Tomar), Flua (Alcobaça), SOPRO (Marinha Grande), Xalavar (Praia da Vieira), Montras com Arte (Setúbal), Estilos Quentes (Évora), Fazunchar (Figueiró dos Vinhos), as well as producer of Ilusão do Real (Leiria) and Falu Street Art Festival (Caldas da Rainha).