Alejandro Diaz

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Alejandro Diaz began his artistic career by making and selling his signature cardboard signs he called “Mexican Wallpaper”. Since then, he has expanded and elaborated on his commentary of contemporary consumer culture through his use of everyday material. Incorporating signage, glitter, cardboard, cookies and postcards, he questions the divisions between high and low art by intermingling their conventions. His provocative and pertinent body of work exemplifies the complex and visually rich cultural milieu particular to South Texas and Mexico. Diaz is 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.

Diaz received an MFA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY in 1999 and a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. He was an Artist-in-Residence at Artpace in 1996 and co-founded Sala Diaz Gallery that same year in San Antonio, Texas. Diaz has had numerous solo exhibitions including his first at Jessica Murray Projects, New York, NY; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; and Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. He has been included in several group exhibitions including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Queens Museum of Art, New York, NY; and National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL. In 2008 he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award for excellence in the visual arts. Diaz has lectured on his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY and at the Drawing Center, New York, NY. 

Alejandro Diaz; Make Tacos Not War, 2020; acrylic on canvas; 36 x 36 inches
Alejandro Diaz; Happiness Is Expensive, 2020; acrylic on canvas; 48 x 36 inches
Alejandro Diaz; Dipt/ych, 2020; acrylic on canvas; 24 x 48 inches
Alejandro Diaz; El Grito, 2017; acrylic on canvas; 20 x 16 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Dinner with a Triangle, 2017; acrylic on canvas; 20 x 20 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Kitty (Double Portrait), 2016; acrylic and mixed media on canvas; 16 x 20 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Ceci n'est pas une pipe, 2015; acrylic and mixed media on canvas; 24 x 30 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Place/Replace, 2016; mixed media on canvas board; 28 x 22 in.
Alejandro Diaz; SAME SEX DIVORCES (Inquire Within), 2013; blue and red neon; 17 x 73 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Dan Flavin, 2012; white neon; 7 x 36 in.
Alejandro Diaz; No Shirt No Shoes You're Probably Rich, 2010; red and blue neon; 17 x 36 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Installation, 2012; acrylic on cast resin; 13 x 18 in. each
Alejandro Diaz; Breakfast Tacos at Tiffany's, 2003; cibachrome, marker on cardboard; 16 x 38 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Please Do Not Touch, 2009; mixed media; 10 x 24 in.
Alejandro Diaz; Mexi-cans, 2010; mixed media; 16 x 32 in.