Carmelita Díaz
Carmelita was born in Metepec, State of Mexico, in 1989. She earned a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Allende Institute, incorporated into the University of Guanajuato, a postgraduate degree in Art Therapy from the University of Barcelona, in 2013, and a Master in Visual Arts from the State University of New York, in 2017.
Currently, she is a FONCA fellow in the Jovenes Creadores program (2020-2021).
Carmelita participated in various solo and group exhibitions in Mexico, the United States and Spain, among which are Parameter of Lumen Art at the Carrillo Gil Museum; Artefacts, at the Equity Gallery in Manhattan, and La Escola Massana, at the University of Barcelona. She also showed at international art festivals such as Quimera, in Metepec, Mexico, and the Cervantino, in Guanajuato. In 2016, she contributed to the Occupy Museums collective at the Whitney Biennial in New York.
The mediums she uses range from oil, ceramic ink, natural pigments and most recently to tattoo body art which have always been approached with historical links to community and multicultural forms of communication, expression and introspection through making.
Statement
Carmelita Díaz creates a multifaceted practice, which is continually linked to the natural environment, emphasizing the connection between place, matter and woman. Her work is characterized by a silent denouement of spaces, power, visibility and erasure, which generates an intimate experience for viewers, who share an understanding of both their environment and themselves. In her work, she explores that which is under the immediate perception and psychology of the gaze, often inspired by a reinterpretation of a landscape, a place, as well as by various historical and cultural references, such as representation and expression of femininity, and human behavior. The themes of ancestral and cultural influences in their symbolic forms; historical and material relationships of the process and movement in creating, are cardinal guides in her creative process.
Likewise, her bicultural Mexican-American ancestry opens the way to a representative context of different materialities and identities seen through landscapes, organic subjects, nostalgia, interior and exterior lights, the interaction between human spaces that explore interdependence, the Natural, and the vulnerability of its elements at the confluence of the material pictorial language and one’s perception of nature.
CV
Education
2017 MFA Visual Arts — SUNY Purchase, NY, U.S.A.
2015 Diploma Writing for the Art World — Sotheby's Institute.
2013 Diploma Art Therapy and Art as a Social Action — Massana, UAB, Barcelona, Spain
2013 Postgraduate Art Therapy Course — Metafora, Barcelona, Spain.
2012 Contemporary Art and Criticism — Class with Dr. Ana Quiroz
2012 B.F.A. Studio Art, Concentration: Painting — Instituto Allende, Universidad de Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Gto. México
Awards
2020 Jovenes Creadores, Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y el Arte (FONCA) — Mexican National Arts Foundation
2017 Campus Public Art Award — SUNY Purchase
2015—2016 Merit Scholarship — SUNY Purchase
Professional Experience
2020—2021 Grant Holder, Jovenes Creadores — FONCA, Mexico
2018 —2020 Art Director — Centro Escolar Hábitat S. C., Metepec, Mx
2017 Experience Coordinator — Serendipity Labs, Rye NY
2016—2017 Research Assistant — Fordham University School of Social Work, NY
2016—2017 Adjunct Faculty — SUNY Purchase, NY
2016—2017 Research Assistant and Translator — Genevieve Hyacinthe, PhD
2015—2017 Research Assistant — Patrice Giasson PhD at Neuberger Museum of Art, NY
2014 MUSAS, Women’s Shelter, Art Therapy workshop, Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico
2014 Assistant Manager — YAM Gallery San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico
2014 Painting Teacher — Foundation for Creative Children of San Miguel, México
2013 Art Workshop, Tot Raval — Barcelona, Spain
2007—2011 Art Therapy, Girls’ Orphanage Don Bosco — San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato
2011 Art Workshop, Cervantino International Art Festival — Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende
Exhibitions Solo + Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 Nostalgia En Tungsteno — Muse del Barro/ Quimera, Metepec, Mexico
2020 Desenterrar — The Restaurant, SMA, Mexico
2017 Artefacts — Equity Gallery, Manhattan, NY
2017 Occupy Museums — Whitey Biennale, Manhattan NY
2016 Stolen, Missing, Disappeared — Dolly Mass Gallery, Purchase NY
2015 Medium Rare — Dolly Maas Gallery, SUNY Purchase, NY
2015 Parametro — Bienal Lumen, Museum of Art Carrillo Gil, Mexico City
2014 Arte Objeto — Mandragora Galeria, Metepec, Mexico
2014 Colectivo 20 para las 4 — Kunsthaus Santa Fe, San Miguel de Allende
2012 Temporada de Lluvias — Cultural Center “El Díezmo”, Metepec, Mexico
2012 Juego Colateral — E.P.C.I. San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato
2011 Para ver lo que ya se ha ido, Berlin Bar, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato
2010 Que es ser Mexicano — Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Gto
2009 La Maquinaria — Celaya, Mexico
Publications
2021 Cuentos de Buenas Noches para Niñas Rebeldes — 100 Mexicanas” Editorial Planeta, 1st Edition
2020 FAM art edition Forum magazine, pag.27, www.forummexico.mx
2014 Expresan sus emociones a través de Arte terapia — Heroes de la Laguna ,Torreon Coahuila
2012 Temporada de lluvias — Periodico Universal Edomex
2013 Tu real naturaleza — by Gisella Torrella, 1st Edition
