Alejandro Diaz

Alejandro Diaz is originally from San Antonio where he developed a provocative and pertinent body of work exemplifying the complex and visually rich cultural milieu particular to South Texas and Mexico. He has lived in Mexico City and is currently based in New York City.

 

Diaz is well-known for his conceptual, recurrent use of everyday materials, his humor infused politics, and his ongoing involvement with art as a form of entertainment, activism, public intervention, and free enterprise. He began making and selling his cardboard signs, “Mexican Wallpaper”, on the streets of Manhattan in the late 90s. He has since translated them into a compelling series of colorful neon signs. Some of Diaz’ recent projects include a commission to create large-scale outdoor sculptures for the Public Art Fund (2005), New York’s premier presenter of public art, a series called MexiCans, now part of the permanent public art collection of the San Antonio, on display at the San Antonio International Airport, and a public art commission for the Havana Biennial (2003).

 

Diaz received a MFA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, in 1999; and a BFA from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1987. He was an Artist-in-Residence at Artpace in 1996. He is currently in a group exhibition at LACMA which will travel to Mexico City, San Antonio, New York, and Houston (2008-2010), and is currently in a solo exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (2009).  Most recently, he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award for excellence in the visual arts in 2008. Diaz has had numerous solo exhibitions, including his first at Jessica Murray Projects, NY. He has lectured on his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art and at the Drawing Center, NY.