Bernardo Díaz and José López
through January 2024
1901 W William Cannon Dr., Suite 165A, Austin

Art 84 at Cannon Coffee presents two established Austin artists — Bernardo Diaz and Jose Lopez — whose works range from the abstract to the surreal. As usual with Art 84 exhibits, expect beauty and meaning with memorable art in a friendly space.

The Mystery of Meaning

Jose Lopez describes himself as a storyteller as much as an artist, but his surrealistic approach still leaves lots for interpretation. Bernardo Lopez’s work doesn’t pretend to tell a story, yet you feel that behind what appears to be abstraction there’s an origin story that has been deconstructed and reconstructed. So, we know that, beyond being visually pleasing, which they very much are, their works are deeply meaningful, but remain profoundly mysterious.

Bernardo Diaz

Bio: Bernardo ‘Bernie’ Diaz is an artist, educator, and administrator who resides in Austin TX. Diaz earned his MFA from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University. A first-generation Mexican-American, Diaz was born in the midwest and spent his formative years in Eagle Pass, a southwest Texas town on the border with Mexico. Diaz’s work explores notions of identity, hybridity, and fragmentation and currently works around three conceptual frameworks: embellishment, omission, and revision. Diaz is not committed to a specific medium and his work manifests in the form of paintings, drawings, collages, and text. Diaz has worked alongside various art organizations including the Public Art Selection Committee for the City of Dallas, Art Love Magic, Big Thought, Peripheral Vision Arts and the SXSW Art Program. Diaz was included in the Dallas Pavilion, a tongue-in-cheek exhibition in print that debuted at the 55th Annual Venice Biennale. An essay and selection of Diaz’s work was published in Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies at UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Art and Art Department Chair at Austin Community College. http://berniediaz.format.com

Artist Statement: I manipulate words and images through a process of revision, omission, and embellishment. This process migrates from paper to pixels and back to paper. Most images and words belong to me but some are discovered. This scavenging, cutting, layering, overlapping, rearranging, decorating, and merging, entail a process of making formal sense of seemingly unrelated parts. In turn, this results in a lineage of hybrid, glyph-like assemblages. Unlike glyphs, these new arrangements don’t need to be deciphered. These aren’t puzzles or riddles. Instead, these compositions seek to redirect; to obscure the origin of its parts; to achieve a sense of completeness from a state of fragmentation.

Jose Lopez

Bio & Artist Statement: I’m a native from Mexico City, I started painting in my early twenties, primarily watercolors but quickly moved to acrylic and oil. I have never taken formal lessons and so I considered myself a self taught artist. I typically use bright colors in my work, I deliberately reject sophisticated artistic techniques and prefer to express my ideas in a direct and bold way in which I feel I’m a narrator rather than a painter. In other words, I think I’m trying to tell a story instead of painting. Finally, my paintings seem to create a point of tension and chaos where the main characters of the story never reach their goals.

This exhibit will run from early October through January, including Austin Studio Tour weekends. Stop by this friendly neighborhood coffee shop and enjoy delicious coffee, tea, and light snacks while you’re enjoying the art.