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Jesse Amado & Alejandro Diaz: Double Pleasure

Past exhibition
January 23 - August 29, 2020 New York City
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Overview
Alejandro Diaz Some of My Favorite Artists, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 48 x 36" 121.9 x 91.44 cm
Alejandro Diaz
Some of My Favorite Artists, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 36"
121.9 x 91.44 cm

Ruiz-Healy Art is pleased to present Jesse Amado and Alejandro Diaz: Double Pleasure in both New York and San Antonio. The exhibitions highlighted Amado and Diaz's work in painting and a shared interest in post-conceptual art practices that is grounded in their Mexican American heritage and South Texas aesthetics. The New York exhibition opening reception was on January 23rd and will be on view through August 29, 2020.

 

Jesse Amado and Alejandro Diaz have been friends and colleagues for the past 40 years. The artists have been in multiple shows together, and these concurrent dual exhibitions brought their work in conversation with one another for the first time in twenty-six years. While the artists demonstrate different aesthetic concerns, their work connects through the incorporation of found materials used to convey human experience and a Beuysian heritage in their social sculpture work. Exhibition catalogue writer Carla Stellweg states, “While the category of ‘Latino’ art and artists is a much-debated subject, the case of Amado and Diaz offers a highly sophisticated and eloquent view of Mexican-American and Latino visual culture at this time.”

 

Jesse Amado’s uses paint, wood, felt, chicharron (fried pork rinds), brass, and light as materials to expand the dimensional constraints of painting. Amado pursues color as material, a boundless pursuit that concludes with a visual language that embraces sensuality and beauty. The artist states, “ My work endorses the quality of change and how limitless and liberating it can be for an artist. Utilizing forms, images, materials, fashions, and media of human industries, I’m able to produce commentaries on the ambiguities of modern and contemporary culture and the investments that are ultimately made by society.”

 

Alejandro Diaz uses a bricolage approach to create paintings using found and collected objects applied to his layered canvases. These works range from pure abstraction to figuration. They reference a variety of concerns from current politics, to decorative and aesthetic movements, to spirituality. The tone of his work is at times humorous, political, celebratory, or even somber and reflective. What is evident in all of Diaz’s work is the presence of the artist’s hand and his ongoing workings of disparate materials to create a sense of personal order.

 

View exhibition on Artsy

 

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Works
  • Alejandro Diaz Some of My Favorite Artists, 2019 Acrylic on canvas 48 x 36" 121.9 x 91.44 cm
    Alejandro Diaz
    Some of My Favorite Artists, 2019
    Acrylic on canvas
    48 x 36"
    121.9 x 91.44 cm
  • Alejandro Diaz Grocery List, 2018 Acrylic on canvas 30 x 24" 76.2 x 60.96 cm
    Alejandro Diaz
    Grocery List, 2018
    Acrylic on canvas
    30 x 24"
    76.2 x 60.96 cm
  • Alejandro Diaz Your Company Logo Here, 2019 Acrylic, 24K gold pigment, fiber paste on board 30 x 6 x 8.5" 76.2 x 15.24 x 21.59 cm
    Alejandro Diaz
    Your Company Logo Here, 2019
    Acrylic, 24K gold pigment, fiber paste on board
    30 x 6 x 8.5"
    76.2 x 15.24 x 21.59 cm
  • Alejandro Diaz Kinderholdingeinrichtung, McAllen, TX, 2018 Acrylic and mylar on canvas 22 x 28" 55.8 x 71.1 cm
    Alejandro Diaz
    Kinderholdingeinrichtung, McAllen, TX, 2018
    Acrylic and mylar on canvas
    22 x 28"
    55.8 x 71.1 cm
  • Alejandro Diaz Make Tacos Not War, 2017 Acrylic, faux tin panel, "Make Tacos Not War" buttons on canvas 36 x 36" 91.4 x 91.4 cm
    Alejandro Diaz
    Make Tacos Not War, 2017
    Acrylic, faux tin panel, "Make Tacos Not War" buttons on canvas
    36 x 36"
    91.4 x 91.4 cm
  • Jesse Amado LIFE #2, 2020 Le Corbusier acrylic on panel, plexiglass 11 x 11 x 1.5 in 27.9 x 27.9 x 3.8 cm
    Jesse Amado
    LIFE #2, 2020
    Le Corbusier acrylic on panel, plexiglass
    11 x 11 x 1.5 in
    27.9 x 27.9 x 3.8 cm
  • Jesse Amado Surveillance #4, 2019 Virgin wool felt, pins on gator board 15 x 15 x 3 in 38.1 x 38.1 x 7.62 cm
    Jesse Amado
    Surveillance #4, 2019
    Virgin wool felt, pins on gator board
    15 x 15 x 3 in
    38.1 x 38.1 x 7.62 cm
  • Jesse Amado Untitled (W), 2020 Le Corbusier acrylic on panel 18 x 18 in 45.7 x 45.7 cm
    Jesse Amado
    Untitled (W), 2020
    Le Corbusier acrylic on panel
    18 x 18 in
    45.7 x 45.7 cm
  • Jesse Amado Untitled (O), 2020 Le Corbusier acrylic on panel 18 x 18 in 45.7 x 45.7 cm
    Jesse Amado
    Untitled (O), 2020
    Le Corbusier acrylic on panel
    18 x 18 in
    45.7 x 45.7 cm
  • Jesse Amado Untitled (K), 2020 Le Corbusier acrylic on panel 18 x 18 in 45.7 x 45.7 cm
    Jesse Amado
    Untitled (K), 2020
    Le Corbusier acrylic on panel
    18 x 18 in
    45.7 x 45.7 cm
  • Jesse Amado Untitled (E), 2020 Le Corbusier acrylic on panel 18 x 18 in 45.7 x 45.7 cm
    Jesse Amado
    Untitled (E), 2020
    Le Corbusier acrylic on panel
    18 x 18 in
    45.7 x 45.7 cm
  • Jesse Amado What a Difference a Day Makes (24 Little Hours), 2019 Le Corbusier acrylic, 48 staples on panel 14 x 23.5 x 1.5 in 35.5 x 59.6 x 3.8 cm
    Jesse Amado
    What a Difference a Day Makes (24 Little Hours), 2019
    Le Corbusier acrylic, 48 staples on panel
    14 x 23.5 x 1.5 in
    35.5 x 59.6 x 3.8 cm
Installation Views
  • Large
  • Larger 9
  • Larger 14
  • Larger 10
  • Larger 13
  • Larger 11
  • Larger 8
  • Larger 6
Press
  • Patricia Ruiz-Healy poses with San Antonio-born artist Alejandro Diaz in her New York City gallery.

    Patricia Ruiz-Healy champions Latinx and South Texas artists in both San Antonio and Manhattan

    Bryan Rindfuss, San Antonio Current, November 4, 2022
    This link opens in a new tab.
Publications
  • Jesse Amado & Alejandro Diaz: Double Pleasure I Ruiz-Healy Art

    Jesse Amado & Alejandro Diaz: Double Pleasure I Ruiz-Healy Art

    Essay by Carla Stellweg 2020
    Hardback 66 pages
    Publisher: Ruiz-Healy Art
    ISBN: 9781714309726
    Dimensions: 10 x 8"
    Read more

Related artists

  • Jesse Amado

    Jesse Amado

  • Alejandro Diaz

    Alejandro Diaz

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Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio

Open Wednesday - Saturday from 11AM to 4PM and by appointment | 210.804.2219

201-A East Olmos Drive, San Antonio, Texas 78212 

 

Ruiz-Healy Art, New York

Open Wednesday - Friday from 11AM to 5PM and by appointment | 646.833.7709

74 East 79th Street, 2D, New York, New York 10075

  

 

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