Roberto Díaz belongs to the generation of painters from Galicia who started out in the 1980s. His figurative works from the mid 1980s depict an intimate world in which he reflects on the nature of being, grounded in his own experiences, with forms characterised by a highly material-oriented process based on gesture and bright, contrasting colours. He moved to Madrid in the late 1980s and began to paint motifs from the city, introducing a certain balance into his works via the inclusion of increasingly schematic figures and isolated motifs such as capsules. These became more common in his work from the 1990s onwards, when he turned towards abstraction in his series Presences (1990-1993). In this series the surface of the pictures takes centre stage in an orderly composition that tends towards the monochrome in shades of blue, surrounded by dark, vertical strips broken up by realistically depicted bars, tubes and chimneys. Díaz subsequently introduced photography as a way of translating painting in his series Recontres (1994), where the surface of the pictures is liberated, revealing zig-zag strokes of colour like a primal pictorial gesture which he translated into an entirely digital setting in his series Utopías (2000).
His first solo show was at the exhibition hall of the Provincial Council of Lugo (1985); he took part in the Pontevedra National Art Biennial (1987) and first exhibited in Madrid at the Columela Gallery (1988). Since then his work has been continually on show in the Spanish capital at the Emilio Navarro Gallery and through his participation in the 11th Salón de los 16 exhibition in the Palacio de Velázquez venue at the Museo Reina Sofía (1991). He has also continued to exhibit in his home region of Galicia, particularly via a solo show at the Provincial Museum of Lugo (2002).
Roberto Díaz belongs to the generation of painters from Galicia who started out in the 1980s. His figurative works from the mid 1980s depict an intimate world in which he reflects on the nature of being, grounded in his own experiences, with forms characterised by a highly material-oriented process based on gesture and bright, contrasting colours. He moved to Madrid in the late 1980s and began to paint motifs from the city, introducing a certain balance into his works via the inclusion of increasingly schematic figures and isolated motifs such as capsules. These became more common in his work from the 1990s onwards, when he turned towards abstraction in his series Presences (1990-1993). In this series the surface of the pictures takes centre stage in an orderly composition that tends towards the monochrome in shades of blue, surrounded by dark, vertical strips broken up by realistically depicted bars, tubes and chimneys. Díaz subsequently introduced photography as a way of translating painting in his series Recontres (1994), where the surface of the pictures is liberated, revealing zig-zag strokes of colour like a primal pictorial gesture which he translated into an entirely digital setting in his series Utopías (2000).
His first solo show was at the exhibition hall of the Provincial Council of Lugo (1985); he took part in the Pontevedra National Art Biennial (1987) and first exhibited in Madrid at the Columela Gallery (1988). Since then his work has been continually on show in the Spanish capital at the Emilio Navarro Gallery and through his participation in the 11th Salón de los 16 exhibition in the Palacio de Velázquez venue at the Museo Reina Sofía (1991). He has also continued to exhibit in his home region of Galicia, particularly via a solo show at the Provincial Museum of Lugo (2002).