Press Release

James Colman Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of 'Comic', a solo exhibition by Colombian artist Wilson Diaz. Comic is a painting project realised during Diaz's residency at Gasworks and has been extended for this exhibition.

Departing from an incident in which most of his paintings disappeared in a fire; Diaz decided to go back to painting as a gesture of a self-sufficient reality. In recent years, painting, that has been present in Diaz's installations and performances, was another element without a leading role as a technique and/or resource.

The two large paintings, painted from photographs of his nephews and nieces, appear to be identical and are the axis of the series. They belong to two different phases of a photographic moment; what we consider to be satisfactory within our conventions of a family portrait, and that moment before or after.

Related to these paintings, the artist presents other images realised from collectable album stickers that circulated in Colombia during the 70s. In these images, natural elements such as trees, lakes, stalactites, fruits and minerals acquire human characteristics. The infantile images are a happy celebration of life and reflect Diaz’s ongoing interest in illustration and popular culture as sources of his work.

The Gardener a series of photographs that were recently shown at the Liverpool Biennial will also be included in the exhibition. The photographs document a number of urban gardens realised mainly with Coca bushes found by the artist in his hometown of Cali.

Diaz's work is underpinned by an acute awareness of social and cultural issues affecting Colombia. In 1998 he founded Helena Producciones, an artist-run organisation that has hosted four Cali International Performance Festivals, a nationally- and internationally- recognised event. Recent exhibitions include Streets of Desire, Jump Ship Rat Gallery, Liverpool Biennial, 2004; Musac Files, Arco, Madrid, 2004; Utopia Station, 50th Venice Biennial, 2003; De la represéntation a l'action, Mains D'oeuvres / Le Plateau, Paris, 2003; Visual Noise / Recent videos from Colombia, L.A. Freewaves, Los Angeles; .and Da Adversidade Vivemos, ARC / Musee Dart Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 2001.