Karla Diaz, La Tía y Don Francisco II, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 in. | Image courtesy of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles 
Karla Diaz, Self Portrait with Toys, 2021, watercolor and ink on paper, 14 x 11 in. | Image courtesy of Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
Contemporary art gallery Luis De Jesus Los Angeles presents Karla Diaz’s (Critical Studies MFA 04) exhibition Insomnia, running from Saturday, Sept. 4 to Saturday, Oct. 30.
Diaz’s exhibition, which will be her first solo show with the gallery, represents a year of insomnia. A stroke survivor, Diaz uses drawing as a tool for practicing repetitive memory exercises. Her acrylic and watercolor works are the result of the spontaneous dreamlike or fantastic imagery that surfaced during episodes of insomnia. More about the Insomnia exhibition from the gallery’s official press release:
In her introspection, splashes of color became figures and objects that transformed into scenes of domesticity and city life drawn from her upbringing in Mexico and Los Angeles. Personal memories, folklore, familiar iconography of her Mexican heritage, and American pop culture are intertwined in surreal compositions that consider family, loss, and the complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States. As Diaz expresses, “these works reveal meaning in relation to others, to experience, to memory, to story, to dreams and dreamers, to imagination and to the larger context of home.
An opening reception for the exhibition takes place at the gallery on Saturday, Sept. 18 from 3-6 pm PST. Appointments for in-person gallery visits may be made on the website.
Diaz is a Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist, writer, and educator. Her works have been exhibited around the globe in venues including the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; LAXART, Hollywood, Calif.; Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; the Serpentine Gallery, London; and Museo Case de Cervantes, Madrid. Diaz is the recipient of grants from Art Matters, New York, NY; Riverside Art Museum, CA; Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY; City of Los Angeles, CA; and CalArts, Los Angeles, CA.
