ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Written by Pamela Portwood

Genuine Style
Artist is out of mainstream in use of Catholic subjects

A year and a half ago, Daniel Martin Diaz had shown a few of his paintings only in group exhibitions at local galleries. Last summer the self-taught 31-year old Tucsonan had artwork in a group exhibition in New YorkCity. This winter he has simultaneous exhibitions at the Tucson Museum of Art and at the Etherton Gallery. How has an artist who has been painting for only a few years managed to achieve what other artist typically spend more than a decade pursuing?

Two years ago, when Diaz first approached Terry Etherton, owner of the Etherton Gallery, about exhibiting his work, Etherton was impressed that Diaz had a complete body of high-quality artwork. Etherton also liked Diaz: "I was just really impressed with his level of excitement and ambition. I haven't run into anybody like that in a long time that is so unjaded." In 1997, Etherton scheduled Diaz for his first one person show at the Temple Gallery, which is managed by Etherton. Diaz's current exhibition at the etherton Gallery features nine paintings and a print.While Joanne Stuhr, curator of exhibitions at the Tucson Museum of Art, describes Diaz both as "very sincere" and as a "great promoter" of his own work, what she saw in Diaz was real promise of growth as an artist.

She first saw a couple of his paintings at a group exhibition at the Jose Galvez Gallery, and then she visited his studio twice. Each time she viewed Diaz's work, she could see it changing and growing. That convinced her he would be a good choice for TMA's "Directions" series of one-person exhibitions by Tucson artists. In describing the " Directions" series, Stuhr says, "I'm trying to focus on a little more experimental work, newer work - perhaps artist who haven't been shown so much."

Now Diaz has a "Directions" exhibition at TMA featuring 25 of his works.Diaz's artwork grows out of the Catholicism of his Mexican parents and his childhood. Yet religion is something he has returned to recently as an adult, not something he has practiced all his life. His oil paintings are full of traditional Catholic symbols and icons: saints, bleeding hearts, stigmata, thorns, the Virgin Mary and nails. Many of his paintings have Latin words around the edges to create a feeling of the ritualistic Catholicism of times past.

His oil paintings are full of traditional Catholic symbols and icons: saints, bleeding hearts, stigmata, thorns, the Virgin Mary and nails. Many of his paintings have Latin words around the edges to create a feeling of the ritualistic Catholicism of times past. The artworks are framed in distressed wood that gives them a sense of age.While Diaz's earlier paintings had more of a folk-art look, his newest paintings reflect his interest in Gothic European art. This is not to say that the earlier works were not good paintings, but simply that, as Stuhr says, Diaz work has changed. "Divinity," a large painting at TMA, reveals a new refinement in Diaz's style and a surprising command of the medium for a self-taught artist. Perspectives are distorted in the work so that a bishop seems to be perched on top of the shoulders of a diminutive Virgin Mary.

The two are enfolded with wings that are covered with repeated patterns of the eye of God, a new motif for Diaz. Rows of the words "Sanctus Divinus" ("Holy Divine") fill the background. It is a beautiful painting with wonderful composition. Yet all those eyes that are also stigmata on the bishop's hands are disconcerting. This painting could almost be out of the 12th century, done in a Byzantine style. Certainly, things in the other Diaz works, like the saint with the flower head, are much more surreal than historical.

It's intriguing to see the visually literal and often gruesome Catholic symbols in work made by an artist living in a society that is skeptical of such religious traditions. What is surprising is both that Diaz has been able to make strong art from such imagery and that the art establishment has recognized its merits even though it is outside the mainstream of contemporary art.

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