DAVID DIAO
TMI

March 23 - April 27, 2013


David Diao, TMI, 2013, installation view.

DAVID DIAO has been showing with Postmasters since its founding in 1985. He will have the gallery's final show before the move from Chelsea to new quarters. This will be his eleventh solo with the gallery.

For over 40 years Diao has nurtured a practice which looks critically at painting and its history. He questions how value is assigned to art and artists, and often implicates himself in the contradictions of this process.

The show will have selections from 1991 to the present. Double Rejection, 2012, documents a moment when his painting hung in the board room at MoMA. The newest work Spine 1, 2013, is based on the abraded spine of the catalog of Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross which has been in Diao's possession since its publication in 1966. He will also present some very small copies of several of his favorite geometric paintings from the 70s in the manner of Duchamp's Boite-en-valise.

In the fall of 2012 Diao showed works from his Melnikov series in a 2 person show with Walid Raad at Paula Cooper Gallery. Holland Cotter writing in the NYT about this show reached back to praise Diao's 2009 show at Postmasters as one of the most moving of that year. nytimes.com

Last month he was invited to speak on Barnett Newman for DIA Art Foundation in their Artists on Artists Lecture series.

David Diao
Spine 1

2013
acrylic and silkscreen on canvas
72 x 100 inches (182.5 x 253.5cm)
David Diao
Salon 2

2011
acrylic and silkscreen on canvas
89 x 132 inches (226 x 336 cm)
David Diao
Double Rejection 1(MOMA Boardroom)

2012
acrylic, paper and silkscreen on canvas
36 x 78 inches (91.5 x 198 cm)
David Diao
Double Rejection 2 (MoMA Boardroom)

2012
acrylic and paper on canvas
44 x 56 inches (112 x 142 cm)
David Diao
40 Years of His Art

2013
acrylic and vynil on canvas
40 x 60 inches (101.5 x 153 cm)
David Diao
Slanted MoMA

1995
acrylic and vinyl on canvas
46 x 75 inches (117 x 90 cm)
David Diao
small paintings installation view
David Diao
After Morocco

2012
acrylic on mdf panel
12 7/8 x 23.5 inches (32 x 59.5 cm)
Original 1976, 84 x 156 inches (213 x 396 cm)
David Diao
After Made in USA

2012
acrylic on mdf panel
14.5 x 13.25 inches (36,5 x 33.75 cm)
Original 1979, 72 x 66 inches (183 x 168 cm)
David Diao
After Odd Man Out

2012
acrylic on mdf panel
15.5 x 12 7/8 inches (39.5 x 32 cm)
Original 1974, 90 x 84 inches (228 x 213 cm)
David Diao
installation view
David Diao
Auction Record

2011
acrylic and silkscreen on canvas
32 x 50 inches (81 x 127 cm)
David Diao
Sales (small)

1991
acrylic on canvas
34 x 24 inches (86.5 x 61 cm)
David Diao
Twice Hammered

2011
acrylic and paper on canvas
60 x 44 inches (152.5 x 112 cm)
David Diao
installation view
David Diao
Mein Held der Spieler

1991
acrylic on canvas
54 x 72 inches (137 x 183 cm)
David Diao
What Ever Happened to Hedda Sterne?

1993
acrylic on canvas
60 x 72 inches (91.5 x 198 cm)