Diana Rosa

In a stylistic amalgam of Pop and folk, abstract and figurative, Diana Rosa takes inspirations from an alternative upbringing where she closely connected with the natural landscape around her. Born and raised in Cuba shaped her perspective on nature and how humans interact with land, animals and each other. She employed a Naïve Folk-Art style to explore questions of identity, love, relationship and environment in our society. Her paintings often had strong autobiographical elements and mixed realism with fantasy. She makes personal women’s experiences serious subjects for art, but because of their intense emotional content, her paintings transcend boundaries by their powerful and intimate narratives. Greatly influenced by modern masters from Cezanne, Henri Matisse to Frida Kahlo
Now living in an urban environment in Ontario, Canada, Diana aims to show our relationship to the world around us through the versatile medium of acrylic paint. She uses sharp brush strokes, contrasting textures, and a variety of acrylic mediums, commenting on our human emotions. Diana Rosa received her Bachelor of Art in Art History at the Oriente University, Cuba (1989-1994) and worked as a curator at the Contemporary Art Centre in Holguin, Cuba (1994-2000). Also, she completed the course Modern Art and Ideas, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016) online learning and Art History: Renaissance Art to Present, Sotheby’s’ Institute of Art, New York (2019) online learning. Her work has been included in many publications and online periodicals such as Home and décor magazine, The Brampton Guardian Newspaper, Now Magazine, Toronto and Toronto Life Magazine. Diana is a full-time studio artist, exhibiting her work in Art Fairs, galleries and museums nationally, and internationally.

Statement
Diana is most well-known for her observational paintings of contorted, and flat figures, in and exuberant coloured environment. Although, the most significant is the simplicity, expressiveness and more instinctive nature. Steering clear of traditional painting techniques and instead allowing her imagination and instincts to guide her hand. Diana’s spontaneous approach naturally simplifies the subject of her paintings, breaking down scenes to more abstract interpretations that have a charming innocence to their observation.

However, while Diana Rosa’s paintings may simplify a scene, they are far from simple paintings. Her bold colour palette and the wild gestural energy of her brushstrokes echo the disharmony of the mass, and strife of the real world. In contrast to this, her simplified painting style reflects the trivial, the banal, and the everyday nature of her observations. There is a strong sense of storytelling in the paintings, though Diana gives us just enough detail to start the story, leaving the viewers to fill in the details and encouraging creative interpretations of each scene