Daniel Martin Diaz: Apocalyptic Resurrection
On view March 4 through March 29, 2006
Press Preview: Wednesday, March 1, 2006 from 7p.m. – 9p.m.
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 4, 2006 from 6 p.m. – 10 p.m.

The Los Angeles Times has raved that the work of self taught Mexican-American artist Daniel Martin Diaz ".... is broodingly personal" with "...a compelling, esoteric edge."

Billy Shire Fine Arts is proud to present, “Apocalyptic Resurrection,” a solo exhibition of paintings, drawings, and prints by Tucson artist Daniel Martin Diaz.

A classically trained pianist and composer, Diaz began sketching and painting between recording sessions. The self-taught artist’s nine-year career has spawned a deluge of success and notoriety in several artistic genres. His second exhibition was a solo museum show. In 2001, he exhibited with controversial artist, Joel Peter Witkin. His passionate creations have been commissioned for the PBS Documentary, The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer’s, the entire CD artwork for the Atlantic Records multi-platinum band, P.O.D., two large altar pieces for San Antonio de Padua Catholic Church in Guaymas, Mexico, and has recently been commissioned to redesign the stage for the historic Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona.

Drawing from old masters, Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegal, and Hieronymus Bosch, both in subject matter and in the ancient egg tempera and resin oil painting style, Diaz’s depictions have a sincerity that exposes a seemingly endless devotion to reveal a higher meaning through painstaking craftsmanship. His use of a limited pallet on distressed wood, handmade wooden frames, and expressive use of Latin text allows Diaz’s images to thrust us into another time and place, as though resurrecting relics from the past. Beneath the stained-glass-look and tortured faces lies a depth and richness of an otherworldly spiritual dimension. In this latest series of paintings, drawings and prints, Diaz delves into the supernatural realm and summons adaptations of end time prophecies and phenomenal consciousness.

The artist explains, “One of my earliest memories as a child was the way death and religion played an important role in my family’s life. My parents were born in Mexico with traditional beliefs, and their beliefs made their way into my subconscious. The fact that many of those beliefs seemed to render no logical explanation has also influenced me. These unanswered questions find a home in my work, which evokes the mystery, fear and irony of those vivid memories of my past. I do not claim to understand these questions. I just paint and let them reveal themselves to me.”

Arizona State Museum curator Martin Kim described Diaz’s recent solo museum exhibition as, …”shamanistic in the sense that he is drawing on his extensive knowledge of the icons that had very rich meanings when knowledge was passed on more through oral tradition. Most contemporary American art tends to be about 90 percent about the artist and their creativity and maybe 10 percent about their culture. When you look at Daniel Martin Diaz's paintings, you are reminded of a period in which art was more like 90 percent about the culture and maybe 10 percent about the artist and their creativity."

For press and visual requests, please contact (mysticuspublishing@gmail.com)
Billy Shire Fine Arts is located at 5790 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 30232. Hours: Tuesday through Saturday.

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