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A grayscale close up photo of artist Lope Max Díaz. He looks into the camera and smiles slightly.

Lope Max Díaz

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The content and subject matter of my paintings emanates from autobiographical constructs. With them, I also explore formal and conceptual issues in painting and art history that are of my interest. The physicality of the materials used responds to the narrative that is being constructed; some sort of cause-effect relationship is established. The materials become active participants of the visual discourse that is unfolding in the painting. The compositions are a continuous tension between the formal and the informal, the static and the dynamic. Color carries the load of my expressive being, with it I give tangibility to my feelings, emotions, and craves.

Lope Max Díaz-Rivera was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, on December 13, 1943. At the age of two my parents, sister, and I moved to New York City, where I went to elementary school and began middle school. In 1956 we returned to Puerto Rico, now a family of eight: five sisters, my parents, and I. Upon our return I finished middle school, high school, and university studies where I majored in Fine Arts and graduated with a BA in Humanities from the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras in 1966. In 1971 I obtained an MA in Art Education from the graduate school at Hunter College, CUNY, and returned to Puerto Rico. A few years later I began teaching art and design in the Fine Arts Department and at the School of Architecture of the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. In 1988 I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina where I had accepted a faculty member position in the College of Design at NC State University. In 2009, and after a teaching career, in PR and NC, of 41 years in the classroom, I retired from the College of Design of NCSU. Throughout the years, since 1966, I have had an art studio and have continued to be an active and productive professional visual artist. 

Featured Artwork

A painting of an illusory rectangular pillar with a facial profile shape painted to look like it is cut out of the pillar at the top. The grey pillar is surrounded by blue and yellow triangles, a black polygon, and two red trapezoids.
Lope Max Díaz. Elegia a mi hijo Maxito I, 2022. Mixed medium, 73”x48”. Image courtesy of the artist.
A square painting with rectangles creating many borders for a illusory hole in the middle of the painting in the shape of a facial profile. The middle is red and covered in a grid pattern.
Lope Max Díaz. Just Looking for Peace / MAXito 10, 2020. Acrylic mixed media, 30 x 30 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
A square painting with rectangles creating many borders for a illusory hole in the middle of the painting in the shape of a facial profile. The middle is green and covered in a grid pattern.
Lope Max Díaz. Just Looking for Peace / MAXito 6, 2020. Acrylic mixed media, 30 x 30 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
A cut-out silhouette of a man facing left. There is a textured fabric inside the hollow area. Surrounding the portrait are red, black, dark grey, and light grey rectangles, making a square composition.
Lope Max Díaz. Just Looking for Peace / MAXito 1, 2020. Acrylic mixed media, 30 x 30 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
A pink color field painting where a blue rectangle radiates a glow from its sides. The center of the blue rectangle is a red line. Intercepting the blue rectangle is a hole in the canvas and a small green square painting is inserted. Underneath the green square are pink ridges.
Lope Max Díaz. Desplazamiento Oblicuo II, 1982. Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 48 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.
An almost square red painting. The top side of the square is interrupted by a green square jutting out the frame. Underneath the green square, there are small red ridges and a blue gradient.
Lope Max Díaz. Penetración, 1978. Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 22 inches. From the Berezdivin Collection, image courtesy of the artist.

Resources

Lope Max Díaz standing between art pieces in front of a white brick wall.

An interview with Lope Max Díaz by BostonVoyager in July of 2018.

BostonVoyager | Article
Lope Max Díaz sits on a stool in his studio. He smiles gently.

A deep dive into Lope Max Díaz's history in teaching and artistic exploration with students.

Walter Magazine | Article
Video still of Lope Max Díaz painting in his studio.

Lope Max Díaz's process of creating three dimensional mixed-media paintings.

Vimeo | Lope Max Díaz