Marcela Díaz
Mérida, Yucatán (1961).

Artist Marcela Diaz has been creating thought provoking sculptural work for more than 18 years. Diaz’s early processes were developed with the guidance of her mentor, sculptor Gerda Gruber, and since 2004 Diaz has exhibited in 40 group exhibitions and 13 solo exhibitions in Mexico, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

Marcela Diaz’s unique style and techniques are evident in her large-scale textile sculptures made with materials native to the Yucatan Peninsula, particularly henequen. Diaz also works with bronze, wood, resin, ceramics, and fiberglass.

Her work can be found in numerous museum and private collections such as:

Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público (México City)
El Museo Latino (Omaha)
Museum Fünf Kontinente (Munich)
Museo Fernando García Ponce-MACAY (Mérida)

2022 EXHIBITION – Mesón Hidalgo

MARCELA DÍAZ
“Árboles, Guerreras, Mujeres”

“I believe that everything is political, and as such it should concern all of us…(those) who claim they don’t deal with politics in their work are being naive, because even that is a political stance.”
– Elena Poniatowska

Marcela Díaz is many things: a woman, a mother, a daughter, a Mexican, a Yucateca, a social advocate, an artist… It is in the embodiment of this last role that Marcela Díaz fuses the collective identities of all the previous titles. Marcela’s latest group of monumental works is – as always – patient and painstaking, visually provocative and physically raw. Díaz always shares her emotional world in her work – and it is in her sensitivity to all women’s challenges that the artist reveals a truthful dialog about womanhood itself. Perhaps it is an obvious statement to make that women, in a global sense, carry a great weight of many roles and many identities not often chosen but bestowed by happenstance and society. It is the conflicting acceptance and rejection of this weight that the artist explores and it is her methodically quiet interpretations that make Díaz’s work so compelling.

Her most recent works are symbols of the female form – rendered larger than life in hand-woven dresses of natural fibers. In these pieces, the role of artist/woman – and the artist herself – is seen clearly in the laced intricacy of the pieces. Each one is an expression of Díaz’s careful planning, her meditative approach, her hours of crochet and weaving and the physical wear on hands that work with rough material. Each dress, each humanistic cultural form, becomes it’s own unique feminine symbol.

In the 2022 Mesón Hidalgo exhibition MARCELA DÍAZ – “Arboles, Guerreras, Mujeres,” the individual dresses were selected for their unique qualities and then arranged for visual strength and unity.

Show curator Laura Kirar writes:

“In my curation of “Arboles, Guerreras, Mujeres,” the work was positioned in a structured formation to emphasize a collective strength of the feminine. While the dresses themselves represent individuals, the rhythmic and mathematically planted orchard of towering sculptures is altogether massive and imposing. It is a large volume taking up the space that cannot be ignored. As if entering a dense forest, the viewer is encouraged to stand near or perhaps even inside the work.

In this show I wanted to highlight the artist’s role as social advocate. Here we can discuss our present era: where women still must fight for equality, for human rights, for control over their own bodies and for their safety. The installation is a reminder that women must remain a united force in our demand for respect and equanimity. In Marcela Díaz’s “Arboles, Guerreras, Mujeres,” the artist makes a strong statement for all of us to experience.”