Andy Diaz (b. 1993, Miami) is a self-taught artist based in Hialeah, FL, who spends his days skateboarding, drawing in notebooks and painting in his backyard with cans of spray paint. Equal measures of tenderness and dark humor infuse Diaz’ paintings, and his works channel a love of emoji culture, document his day-to-day life struggles and ponder our current shared world moment, all while seeming playfully oblivious. Rendered with aerosol paints, oils, acrylic, or a mix, Diaz’ canvases alternate between hazy dreamscapes executed in subtle tones and more aggressive, tightly-painted scenes in bright day glow colors.

The protagonists in Andy Diaz’ paintings are boxers, smiling ghosts, comically-menacing figures with drooping horns and the artist’s close friends and family members. Almost all of his subjects face outwards and address us, the viewers, directly, and they often appear to have been caught red-handed for misdeeds we can only imagine. In softer works, we see individuals lost in love hugging each other, groups of diverse people gently resting their heads together and lone figures simply taking it all in. There are subconscious nods towards early childhood television shows and YouTube video sensations in Diaz’ works, but in his hands we see pleasantly stoned Ernies and Berts that have morphed, melted, and then been reassembled into something we recognize but are also seeing for the first time.

At the core of Andy Diaz’ art practice is a natural inclination and affinity for intuitive mark making and drawing. His fluid images are drawn and painted directly onto canvases, and the works often have no preplanning or overarching concept. By choosing to work freely in this manner, Diaz’ scenes feel spontaneous and ready to burst. His paintings are vivid, raw and exuberant in a way only artists who are truly having fun and incorporating “play” into their studio practice can muster. Even when frozen in time (or stupefied with telling pink eyes), these characters grab our attention and bring us into Diaz’ universe. We join in their fun, empathize with their distress, and become silent voyeurs at the psychedelic party Andy Diaz has assembled.

True Nature is Andy Diaz’ first solo exhibition with the gallery and also his first gallery presentation in New York City. He currently lives and works in Hialeah, FL and has been obsessively creating art since childhood.