BIOGRAPHY
His art dominates. No one can pass by one of his paintings without wanting to study it a little more. We get caught between the message, the strong colors, the richness of texture and format, but mostly by his "naïf expressionism" style, which concludes with the fact that behind each piece is the artist - a child with a great sense of humor and undeniable talent.
If Rogelio is anything, it's intense, in both appearance and in his art. “I feel pain, I paint and disfigure and in decomposition I find truth and self-definition.” Who is it? Rogelio Díaz.
As in a riddle, his work has the same surprising effect, like a game that suddenly turns nasty, like a little Red Riding Hood who ends up munching the big bad wolf, and in this child-like and morbid duality, from the monstrous to the silly, tender and icy, profound and fibbing, Rogelio lives life intensely.
He declares himself in the path of expressionism and figurative art, though really he prefers to talk about Velázquez, the artist who painted even the air, and Rubens' voluminous passion. He speaks of his first years at the workshop of the River Cuale and jokingly refers to them as his "anti-professional period."
His first public exhibition, so to speak, was the invitation cards he prepared for his sister's wedding. An uncomely, yet beautiful, silhouette of a flamenco woman appears, which prompts him to remember those years when he could hardly survive as a painter. Now a family man and successful artist, he looks back on those days as his lyrical age, when he gave up everything to paint. His mystical mood leads him to mention the Huichol Indians, whom he describes as "nice guys," and none, he pinpoints, are bold.
What is it in a Huichol that makes him so uncomplicatedly pure? For this self-taught artist, the answer and path is clear: a return to the spontaneity of childhood in communion with real needs and desires.
Following this notion, he is particularly interested in the imaginative world of children as it is less culturally conditioned. Depriving his images of beauty, he becomes almost enraptured in a feverish catharsis. He likes to undo, unlearn and deconstruct, stirring the viewer's emotional awareness and consciousness, where a mutilated body seems invisible, through its imposing brutal presence.
With piercing reds, blacks and yellows, he paints an eclectic smile, cancan boots, infantile scribbles surrounding 'A Pair of Dancers in Eternal Spring,' which, though grotesque, seem happy and pristine. His provocative images, rooted in Mexico's ancient indigenous culture, take you on a trip to the primitive and the private, where one senses a déjà-vu, something distant, yet primal like a sweet murmur, a giggling smile or a cold shiver. And, like in a storybook as well, he particularly enjoys titling his pictures, where he conveys his sense of humor and intent with a beginning and a very unruly end. His has a unique style, which has definitely been influenced by Picasso and Basquiat.
Rogelio believes that we all have something of a child within us. The older we grow, the closer we come to returning to the innocence of childhood. There is little room for middle ground among his audience, but collectors who would have never considered his works in years past have now become fond admirers of his work. In 2005 Rogelio was chosen as "Best Visual Artist" in Vallarta Lifestyle's Reader's Choice Awards.
If Rogelio is anything, it's intense, in both appearance and in his art. “I feel pain, I paint and disfigure and in decomposition I find truth and self-definition.” Who is it? Rogelio Díaz.
As in a riddle, his work has the same surprising effect, like a game that suddenly turns nasty, like a little Red Riding Hood who ends up munching the big bad wolf, and in this child-like and morbid duality, from the monstrous to the silly, tender and icy, profound and fibbing, Rogelio lives life intensely.
He declares himself in the path of expressionism and figurative art, though really he prefers to talk about Velázquez, the artist who painted even the air, and Rubens' voluminous passion. He speaks of his first years at the workshop of the River Cuale and jokingly refers to them as his "anti-professional period."
His first public exhibition, so to speak, was the invitation cards he prepared for his sister's wedding. An uncomely, yet beautiful, silhouette of a flamenco woman appears, which prompts him to remember those years when he could hardly survive as a painter. Now a family man and successful artist, he looks back on those days as his lyrical age, when he gave up everything to paint. His mystical mood leads him to mention the Huichol Indians, whom he describes as "nice guys," and none, he pinpoints, are bold.
What is it in a Huichol that makes him so uncomplicatedly pure? For this self-taught artist, the answer and path is clear: a return to the spontaneity of childhood in communion with real needs and desires.
Following this notion, he is particularly interested in the imaginative world of children as it is less culturally conditioned. Depriving his images of beauty, he becomes almost enraptured in a feverish catharsis. He likes to undo, unlearn and deconstruct, stirring the viewer's emotional awareness and consciousness, where a mutilated body seems invisible, through its imposing brutal presence.
With piercing reds, blacks and yellows, he paints an eclectic smile, cancan boots, infantile scribbles surrounding 'A Pair of Dancers in Eternal Spring,' which, though grotesque, seem happy and pristine. His provocative images, rooted in Mexico's ancient indigenous culture, take you on a trip to the primitive and the private, where one senses a déjà-vu, something distant, yet primal like a sweet murmur, a giggling smile or a cold shiver. And, like in a storybook as well, he particularly enjoys titling his pictures, where he conveys his sense of humor and intent with a beginning and a very unruly end. His has a unique style, which has definitely been influenced by Picasso and Basquiat.
Rogelio believes that we all have something of a child within us. The older we grow, the closer we come to returning to the innocence of childhood. There is little room for middle ground among his audience, but collectors who would have never considered his works in years past have now become fond admirers of his work. In 2005 Rogelio was chosen as "Best Visual Artist" in Vallarta Lifestyle's Reader's Choice Awards.