The exhibition Gonzalo Díaz, the painter brings together early works by the artist —including some created during his stay in Florence in the early 80s— that experiment with new pictorial languages and subject to criticism modes of visual representation through the reuse of symbols and elements of Chilean popular culture.
Neon lights, words, tools, and pry bars have been the hallmark of Gonzalo Díaz’s work since the 1980s: when he abandoned painting for the concept, the support for the context, and the brush for urgency.
However, after forty years, he surprises us by pointing out his desire to paint again and returns to painting like a prodigal son, like someone returning to his childhood home, to the beginning of everything, to settle accounts or close cycles.
This return to painting is a return to pleasure, to the enjoyment of color and the sensuality of bodies, and an opportunity to revisit a group of works created during a defining period in his career as an artist, because for him, painting is his mother tongue and a secret journey. These five years were marked by his trip to Florence, the use of spray paint and stencils, the emergence of the Klenzo girl, and the return of painting to the local scene.
This exhibition is our tribute to Gonzalo Díaz, the painter.
