Karla Diaz in Conversation with Mia Lopez

The Latinx Project

You’re invited to join us for an online conversation featuring artist-in-residence Karla Diaz and curator of Ya Mero Mia Lopez.

About the Exhibition<a href="https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/yamero" title="https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/yamero" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Ya Mero (Almost There)</a> is a declaration of imminent arrival. Los Angeles-based artist Karla Diaz has made work about her life for over twenty years. Through painting, drawing, and performance, she documents life’s tragedies and triumphs, calling upon her own lived experiences and the stories of friends, family, and community. Her works evoke a sense of dream-like recollection, giving form to ephemeral emotions and remembrance. About the Artist in ResidenceKarla Diaz is a writer, teacher, and multidisciplinary artist who engages in painting, installation, video, and performance. Using narrative to question identity and institutional power, and to explore memory, her socially engaged practice generates exciting collaborations and provokes important dialogue among diverse communities. Notably, she is the co-founder of the collective and community artist space Slanguage. Critical discourse is central to her practice as she explores social, subcultural, and marginalized stories.As a stroke survivor, she practices repetitive memory exercises, using drawing as a tool for excavating and retaining information. Personal memories, folklore, familiar iconography of her Mexican heritage, and American pop culture are intertwined in surreal compositions that consider family, loss, and the complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States.Diaz was born and lives in Los Angeles, CA. She received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2003 and a BA from California State University Los Angeles in 1999. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, ICA Boston, Hyde Park Art Center, Serpentine Galleries (London), and Museo Casa de Cervantes (Valladolid, Spain). She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards from Art Matters, Tiffany Foundation, Riverside Art Museum, and CalArts. Her work is included in the collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and Inhotim Museum (Brumadinho, Brazil), among others.To learn more about Karla Diaz, read her<a href="https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/news/karla-diaz-artist-in-residence-2025-26" title="https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/news/karla-diaz-artist-in-residence-2025-26" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">&nbsp;Q+A with the curator here.</a> About the CuratorMia Lopez is the inaugural Curator of Latinx Art at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. She has worked with artists and leading contemporary art institutions across the United States for over 15 years. She recently curated the exhibition Rasquachsimo: 35 Years of a Chicano Sensibility and co-curated the exhibition Synthesis &amp; Subversion: Redux at Ruby City. Lopez has previously held curatorial positions at DePaul Art Museum in Chicago and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Exhibitions and publications she has contributed to include Remember Where You Are, LatinXAmerican, and International Pop. Lopez is an alumnus of the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute. She holds a BA in Art History from Rice University and dual MAs in Art History and Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. SupportersYa Mero (Almost There) are made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the <a href="https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/tomas-ybarra-frausto-curatorial-fund" title="https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/tomas-ybarra-frausto-curatorial-fund" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Tomás Ybarra-Frausto Curatorial Fund</a>.

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Karla Diaz in Conversation with Mia Lopez

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Karla Diaz in Conversation with Mia Lopez

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