showing art out of his own apartment<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cBeing a part of the history, part of the social fabric of Miami\u2019s art scene is really something that I think is so incredible,\u201d says Diaz, who got his start running the D.I.Y. art space Worm-Hole Laboratory. \u201cMiami has really transformed; it\u2019s really grown as a city and as an art scene. And so to come to what I think is the anchor arts institution of Miami, it\u2019s kind of like a dream come true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diaz was able to use the city as a launchpad for his own career in the 2000s. Among his achievements are curating shows featuring Paola Pivi and Farhad Moshiri at the Andy Warhol Museum, as well as a variety of exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum. His work in the Pacific Northwest included everything from Japanese woodblock prints (\u201cHokusai: Inspiration and Influence\u201d) to modernist masters (\u201cCalder: In Motion\u201d) and South Florida artists (\u201cFriendsWithYou: Little Cloud Sky\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite this geographically diffuse career, he\u2019s been able to observe the growth of the local arts community over the last two decades. Based on his previous experience and knowledge of the area, Diaz doesn\u2019t feel like he\u2019s flying in blind. For a city like Miami, that\u2019s important.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cInstitutions often hire directors and curators from other places,\u201d he says. \u201c[But] I\u2019ve also continued to observe and to communicate with the local artists. And I know that\u2019s really important to Miami. I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m coming in as a new person. There are just so many people that I already know. I\u2019m really excited to engage with them. And I think part of this role is going to allow me to really connect or strengthen the bond between the local art scene and the P\u00e9rez.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In particular, he praises the variety and breadth of the scene, covering \u201ceverything from outdoor art and graffiti to paintings in the gallery\u201d and extending from central areas like Wynwood to far-out suburbs such as Doral. He also notes that attention to the city\u2019s art scene is no longer limited to just the first week of December, when Art Basel Miami Beach takes over the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 365 days of art now. And I think that it\u2019s incredible that you can visit Miami as a tourist, and there\u2019s always going to be some sort of art activity,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut the scene itself is really welcoming, I think, to new artists or new art lovers. And even since the pandemic, there\u2019s been a growth of population, a growth of people having an interest and learning about art. And I think that a role that museums can play is educating people, but also getting them interested in art. I think modern and contemporary are really easy gateways into becoming active in the art world, or even in the art scene in Miami.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That focus on modern and contemporary art is both a strength and weakness for Miami, Diaz says, as there is a certain focus on the art market that comes from the presence of Basel and other art fairs. In Seattle, he\u2019s able to draw from a more historical art collection than Miami\u2019s. At the same time, here, he\u2019ll also be able to harness an even greater local resource: the city\u2019s local artists. PAMM\u2019s existing curatorial staff have been adept at boosting locally-born and South Florida-based artists, supporting the likes of Jason Seife, Elliot & Erick Jim\u00e9nez, Jos\u00e9 Parl\u00e1, and Antonia Wright.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t need to be these monolithic spaces where nothing changes,\u201d he says. \u201cFor PAMM to continue to highlight local artists, maybe giving them their first solo exhibitions, that\u2019s something that I\u2019ve learned is really important and extremely meaningful. Giving them their first exhibition, perhaps their first series of programming, publication, acquisition \u2014 these things are extremely meaningful, which is beyond just bringing in, you know, an Ai Weiwei exhibition to your city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diaz also hopes the museum continues to serve as a third space for Miami, a place separate from work and home that can serve as a community resource.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want people to come to museums to meet with their friends, have a coffee, charge their phones, consider it a space to learn, laugh, and have fun,\u201d he says. \u201cMy approach to art is really making it accessible. I think a five-year-old or a 90-year-old should come into an exhibition and feel like it\u2019s really interesting and really engaging. I don\u2019t want an artistic experience or a museum experience to feel elitist or unwelcoming. I think that\u2019s something that I\u2019ve learned, that all museums are really trying and struggling for. But the Perez Art Museum \u2014 it\u2019s an extremely diverse collection, and it\u2019s an extremely diverse staff, and I think museums really aspire to diversify their collection and certainly have a staff that reflects the community. I think that\u2019s something that I\u2019m really honored to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Carlos Diaz’s art career has taken him around the world. Now, he’s back home at PAMM. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":{"0":"post-12339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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