Juan Roberto Diago Cuba, b. 1971
(Small strips of canvas painted individually and collaged on canvas)
300 x 200 cm
Juan Roberto Diago's "Untitled (La Piel Que Habla)" asserts the enduring physical and metaphorical scars of the African diaspora through monumental mixed-media canvases that layer, overlap, and distress earth-toned fabrics to replicate the raised, textured forms of keloid scars—those hypertrophic marks that form on dark skin following deep wounds. Rough stitching, frayed edges, and deliberate surface abrasion create a palpably corporeal topography, transforming the canvas into a living archive of historical trauma inflicted by colonialism, slavery, and systemic violence. This precise technique affirms the resilience and unyielding endurance of Afro-descendant communities, where the keloid does not signify mere injury but stands as evidence of the body's refusal to heal invisibly, preserving memory through elevated, permanent tissue. Conceptually, the work firmly interrogates the intersection of corporeal memory and cultural inheritance, establishing the distressed surface as a sentinel of hybrid identity and collective fortitude, where historical layering fosters not erasure but profound, textured regeneration amid ongoing marginalization.
Exhibitions
Disclaimer: Works from this series are highly consistent in format, material, and visual language, with variations in composition, scale, texture, and configuration. The exhibition history below refers to the series / related body of works. Showcase the impact of the series
“La Piel que habla,” Galería de la Biblioteca Pública Rubén Martínez Villena, Havana, Cuba, October 2014.
“Roberto Diago and Abstraction,” Pan American Art Projects, Miami, Florida, 2015.
“Tracing Ashes,” Galerie Crone, Berlin, Germany, December 11, 2015 – January 23, 2016.
“Imprint of a Memory,” Magnan Metz Gallery, New York, NY, 2016.
“Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present,” Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Hutchins Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February 2 – May 5, 2017.
“LA HISTORIA RECORDADA / Roberto Diago,” Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, January 19 – March 3, 2018.
“Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present,” Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, October 2019 – January 2020.
“Juan Roberto Diago: 20 Years of Creation,” Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida, November 2019 – January 2020.
“Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present,” Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, February 11 – July 2, 2022.
“Testigo del Tiempo,” Galería Artizar, Tenerife, Spain, April 22 – June 4, 2022.
“Diago, un arte para todos los tiempos,” Fondation Clément, Le François, Martinique, March 10 – May 2, 2023.
“La oscuridad fue el principio,” Centro de Arte Juan Ismael, Fuerteventura, Spain, July 6 – September 23, 2023.
“La oscuridad fue el principio,” Casa de América, Madrid, Spain, October 13 – November 25, 2023.
“Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present,” Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States, Washington, D.C., 2024.
“Juan Roberto Diago: Foraged Materials, Assembled Histories,” Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, April – June 2024.
Literature
“Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present,” by Alejandro de la Fuente, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2017 : pages 142–145 (This publication was produced to accompany the exhibition of the same title at the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery, Harvard University.)
“Roberto Diago. La oscuridad fue el principio,” Artizar Gallery Print (catalog), 2023.
“IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS, Volume Fourteen,” Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida : page 148.
“Diago, un arte para todos los tiempos” (exhibition catalog), Fondation Clément, Martinique, 2023 : pages 26–27.
“Viaje sin fin: las formas de sentir de Diago” (monograph), Casa de América / Casamérica, 2023 : pages 201–202 (essay discussion by Janet Batet), page 225 (reproduction), page 247 (exhibition listing).
Provenance
Robert Diago Studio > Robert Borlenghi Collection