“An exhibition endorsed by reflection and freedom, with the tribute of expressing myself and giving free rein to my emotions without being affected by the stimuli of the environment.The feeling of the contemplation of Emotional Licence!When art tends to abstraction in a conscious and non-casual way, all the mechanisms of interpretation are thrown out of place, provoking in the act of looking, both the understandable and the emotional.Images always propose a challenge to the eye. To be able to conjugate the infinite in a conclusion. That is what I propose and the duty as a spectator is to try to aspire to the degree of knowledge of all that is proposed. This leads me to the universalisation of each theme, singular and incomparable moments, as happens when we observe nature. A restlessness between what is real and what is suggested.The melody of warm and cold, the transitions of nuances, the unconsidered mixture of zones, recreate conflict. I don’t want to escape from this critical gaze, to submerge myself in the interiorities of what I contemplate.This fine line, which asks for a deep sense of what surrounds us, between the instant and the reflection, between what seems and what is hidden. Finding the right moment, the atmosphere, the context, the perseverance, the material, the immaterial…” María Xesús Díaz.

María Xesús Díaz

“María Xesús Díaz has a long career. She studied at the School of Arts in A Coruña, her native city, and in 1987 she held her first exhibition in Madrid and A Coruña on the occasion of the 75 years Unión Fenosa Plastic Arts Exhibition. His decades in painting are marked by a path focused on the evolution towards the consolidation of his own style and experimentation with paravarguandist tendencies that lead him to the 90’s impregnated by an aesthetic that oscillates between naïf and costumbrismo. Canvases from that period reveal an author in which drawing dominated her compositions, and colour, rounded and effective, appeared less developed. Even then, she imbued her canvases with an emotional charge and a conveyance of feelings that did not leave the viewer indifferent.

By the beginning of the 21st century, an impressionist tendency and the deconstruction of surfaces through the palette knife will shape the style that today defines her work and initiates the path that leads her to her creative and stylistic plenitude. The most surprising thing is that, although it might seem so at first glance due to the impetus of colour, the artist from A Coruña has not abandoned figuration at all. In the staging of her compositions, we can glimpse blurred skies, trees, distant horizons, mountains, bridges, roads, seascapes and urban landscapes. Segmented by the imprint of the palette knife, and deconstructed, approaching abstraction, even the aesthetics of collage.

The author turns her canvases into a tribute to the poetics of the stain, to the physical trace of the pigment, magically maintaining her capacity to move, and at the same time offering a personal sample of extraordinary pictorial quality. It is the incontestable reality that he is one of the great values of Galician painting today.”  text by María Fidalgo Casares, PhD in history, researcher and art critic.

In his pieces we find large and small spaces where the stain is the proposal, in a framework that lets the imagination fly to multiple interpretations, always leading to comforting feelings. To approach his painting is to approach his inner self.

The painter’s work visits different cities in Spain and abroad. She participates in different art fairs and artistic meetings. These activities become an important part of her life and lead her to establish a knowledge of the works and artists.

He is a member of the jury for various prizes and competitions. Highlights: Premios da crítica de Galicia 2020 – Balconadas de Betanzos 2018, 2019, 2024 – Certamen Fernández Leizeaga Sesé 2022. He is a member of the art group Colectivo Cero. His work can be found in various public and private collections.

Recent collaborations and projects

Exposición Licencia Emocional en Herraiz Galería de Arte (Madrid) 
Colectivo Cero 20 Aniversario en la sala Jesús Núñez de Betanzos
Encontro coa arte lebrando a Luisa Villalta
Retratos dun tempo da Plástica Galega a Fundación a Coruña
Conferencia y Exposición del Colectivo Cero en Martos (Jaén)
Retratos dun tempo da Plástica Galega a Fundacion Vigo
Encontro coa arte lebrando a Francisco Fernández del Riego Concello de Brión.

Source: María Xesús Díaz.