Media Advisory:
Window Works: Alejandro Diaz
01.11.06
Media Contact: Libby D. Tilley
t 210 212 4900 x122
f 210 212 4990
ltilley@artpace.org
www.artpace.org
WHAT
On an ongoing basis Artpace organizes projects for its busy, downtown windows on N. Main Avenue, activating the art viewing experience from the sidewalk level. The program demonstrates Artpace?commitment to extending the dialogue about contemporary art beyond traditional gallery spaces, and in this spirit, in 2004 Artpace has begun organizing WindowWorks projects beyond its own building, and deeper into downtown with several projects in the windows of the Stuart Building at 306 E. Houston St.
WHO
San Antonio-born, New York City-based Alejandro Diaz?strategically uses everyday material to amplify notions of contemporary commercial culture. Incorporating signage, glitter, cardboard, cookies, and postcards he consistently questions divisions between high and low by intermingling conventional notions of each. Recent projects have focused on signage and product-design, two iconic elements of popular culture.
In A Can for All Seasons Diaz turns familiar products into sculpture. Cans of Jumex juice, Herdez corn, La Morena chiles, and Morelia chocolate have been crafted in vibrant colors four feet high. Monumentalizing products associated with Latino kitchens, the gesture brings the domestic into an art context. The project departs from Pop artists over-sized interrogations of the mass-produced to examine the role of cultural specificity in everything from cooking to marketing.
Alejandro Diaz lives and works in New York City. A former Artpace resident in 1996, recent group shows include “The Superfly Effect,” Jersey City Museum, New Jersey; “Open House,” Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; “Fall Selections 2004,” Drawing Center, New York; and the Havana Biennial (2003). He received a BFA from University of Texas at Austin and an MA from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York.
WHEN
February 2 pril 23, 2006
WHERE
Artpace San Antonio, 445 N. Main Avenue
OTHER
A Can for All Seasons was originally commissioned by Public Art Fund, New York, NY.
CONTACT
Libby D. Tilley, Artpace (ltilley@artpace.org) – 210 212 4900
445 North Main Avenue San Antonio TX 78205 t 210 212 4900 f 210 212 4990 www.artpace.org
© 2006 Artpace San Antonio