"Household items, like pot scrubbers, scouring pads, oyster shells, clocks, Corona Beer bottles or buttons additionally heighten the surface qualities and materiality of the paintings, like in the work titled Plastered in Mexico. Nothing is too ‘lowly’ not to end up as part of Diaz’s inventory, and, as in his early cardboard pieces, albeit indirectly, these objects underscore the painterly qualities the artist is looking for. Whether they turn out to be abstract or figurative, it’s the emotional charge that stands out and is foremost in Diaz’s paintings." -- Carla Stellweg