Friday night, I attended the opening of the Collection of Carlos Diaz Corona, Una Linea en el Agua at the Museo Raul Angiano (MURA) in the Chapultapec neighborhood of Guadalajara (MURA is the contemporary art museum of the city of Guadalajara). Carlos has one of the largest collections of contemporary art work in Jalisco. His work as a professional photographer @photocardiaco has established him as the pre-eminent photographer of contemporary art in Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta and Mexico City.
I have worked with Carlos since I arrived in Mexico in 2010. I feel fortunate to have him as my photographer, my friend, and now my collector. He has not only shot all my new artwork made since 2010, but he has also shot my artwork in situ, notably during my solo exhibition Avianto, at the Train Station Museum in 2022.
As my career has been heating up internationally, Carlos expressed an interest in adding my abstract art to his collection. Over the last four years, we started to build up a purchase fund. Every time we had a shoot, I would pay Carlos a portion of the cost and keep half in an acquisition fund. I created a spreadsheet to keep track of each photo shoot. It included the date, title of pieces, the location (Chapala or Guadalajara), the cost of shoot, the amount paid and the amount on deposit for his art collection.
By the time my solo exhibition opened at the @centroculturalgonzalezgallo, known locally as the Train Station Museum, Carlos was ready to bring his wife, Lulu, to preview the show and choose pieces for their collection. They chose two pieces. One of my older works, Remnants 17 created in 2011, which received a special mention for the Member Exhibition of the Surface Design Association conference in Minneapolis, MN that same year.
Carlos and Lulu also chose Plumas 2, created in 2022 as part of my new small works collection.
The curator, Mayra Vineya, visited the 90+ piece collection at Carlos’s home in Guadalajara and chose 31 pieces for the exhibition titled Una Linea en el Agua. I am so honored that both of my pieces were chosen for this wonderful exhibition. My work is joined by some of the big names in Mexican contemporary art including Davis Birks, Alicia Ceballos, Adrian Guerrero, Florencia Guillen, Monica Leyva, Francisco Morales, Ivan Puig, Vicente Rojo, among others.
The icing on the cake, is that Carlos and Lulu are already saving up for their next piece!
After the opening, a group of us went out for a delicious dinner at a restaurant a block away from the museum, Rio Vieja. The food, ambiance and live music were great!
Una Linea en el Agua will be on view at the Museo Raul Angiano through Sunday July 2, 2023. Hours are Tuesday – Saturday 10 – 5pm and Sundays 10 – 3pm. Free admission.
Address: Av. Mariano Otero 375, Col. Moderna
Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Jalisco
Tels.: 33 1657 9819, 33 1657 9942, .33 3801 2032