2024-04-23 16:35:06
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is pleased to announce KARLA DIAZ: Mujer Valiente y Los Diablitos (The Brave Woman and The Little Devils), the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery, from April 27 to June 8, 2024. An opening reception with a live musical performance of the artist’s own corrido (co-written with César Castro, Jarochelo and Chuy Sandoval) will be held on April 27, 2024 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Karla Diaz is known for her storytelling kaleidoscopic paintings, which she began making to map memories, dreams and whims during her recovery from a stroke. Her healing journey led to a prolific series of works that evolved into a playful yet formidable anthology of Latinx and Mexican-American experiences in Southern California. Diaz’s surreal paintings narrate a collective unconscious of cultural iconography, pop references, current events and family dynamics and traditions that shape the worldview of the artist and her communities. In Diaz’s latest series, she expands her visual storytelling to include music and performance through the northern Mexican genre of narrative ballads, the corrido.
KARLA DIAZ: Mujer Valiente y Los Diablitos (The Brave Woman and The Little Devils) invites you to the artist’s fantasy world of her alter ego, Mujer Valiente, the lead singer of the band, Los Diablitos, and their tour of various beloved places in the East LA, from Mariachi Plaza to Whittier Boulevard. The exhibition expands on the storytelling of the corrido, where the artist turned its traditional tropes around to empower women. Historically, corridos have been used as a forum for oral histories and storytelling, facilitating social messages spun by heroic men, where women, by contrast, are often absent or mentioned in allegories warning once morest social deviance. Diaz’s reinterpretation not only changes the gender roles, but also brings new content to a genre that in its contemporary moment has had controversy and even legal consequences for songs that promote illegal activities, drugs, misogyny, violence once morest women and femicide. Her artistic agency is a powerful testament to the strength and resilience of women, inspiring us all to challenge societal norms and reclaim our narratives.
Through the lyrics – sung, performed and vividly painted on canvas – we learn the story of the brave woman who does not even fear the devil (“no le teme ni al diablo”), and her determination and resilience to overcome a broken heart get over The storytelling in corridos, like many ballads, is abstract, mixing fact and probability with fiction and drama for effect. Diaz applies it in full force – painting lyrics saturated in her signature palette of rainbow hues, dreamy washes and colors that conjure up the magic of cultural vernacular, from cheerfully painted neighborhood shops to bougainvillea pink, cactus green, colorful textiles and concert costumes. In these works, the artist often takes on fantasy characters and takes on power roles and positions that have typically been dominated by men, such as a corrido singer, a bullfighter or a boxer. Between the paintings, the exhibition’s installation also includes a music video and a large painted backdrop that immerses viewers inside her imaginary concert hall.
The narratives tell the story of the Latina artist who dreams of being a star and what it would be like to hold positions of power that women often have little or no access to. Adapting the corrido genre to playfully carry mythic characters and woman-centered romances of love, abandonment, and grief with pressing and pressing social themes of protest, immigration, and political unrest. Diaz’s works embrace, amplify and provide a variety of emotional releases through humor, seriousness and nostalgia. Mujer Valiente reconstitutes the corrido as a space for radical discourse. The exhibition and corrido not only tells the story of an individual woman’s strength, but also celebrates her neighbors and friends who support and encourage her – essentially a love song to Diaz’s community.
Karla Diaz (b. 1976, Los Angeles) lives and works in Los Angeles, she received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2003 and a BA from California State University Los Angeles in 1999. Diaz is a co-founder, with Mario Ybarra Jr., of the collective and community artist space Slanguage in Wilmington, CA. Diaz’s works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at the 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, LAXART, Hollywood, CA; Pitzer College, Claremont, CA; California State University Los Angeles, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI; the Serpentine Gallery, London, UK; and Museo Casa de Cervantes, Madrid, Spain. Her work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, and Inhotim Museum, Brumadinho, Brazil. She has received numerous awards and accolades from Art Matters, New York, NY; Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY; City of Los Angeles, CA; Riverside Art Museum, CA; and CalArts, Los Angeles, CA.
For further information, including images and previews, please contact Gallery Director, Brianna Bakke at 213-395-0762, or gallery@luisdejesus.com. Gallery Instagram: @luisdejesuslosangeles
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