A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.
Diana stands, arms crossed, wearing a short sleeve denim shirt beneath a dark denim apron.

Diana Guerrero-Maciá

Professor, Presidential Professor

Bio

Diana Guerrero-Maciá’s practice includes a hybrid investigation of painting, textiles, print & sculptural objects with an interest in sustainable craft practices. Her largely abstract works engage with myth, iconography, symbols, and color. She is most known for her unpainted pictures, poetic abstract paintings constructed from textiles. Guerrero-Maciá is a 2023 Lenore Tawney Fellow, 2021 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellow, and a MacDowell Fellow.

Diana’s artworks are held in multiple collections both public and private. She has exhibited extensively at noted public institutions such as The John Michael Kohler Art Center; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Artpace, San Antonio; Elmhurst Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Louis, and the Crocker Art Museum. She is represented by Carrie Secrist Gallery in Chicago and Traywick Contempory in San Francisco. Guerrero-Maciá is alumnae of Skowhegan, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Penland School of Craft, and Villanova University.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

Color is everywhere. This fiber studio will teach students basic color theory and applied color mixing techniques using fiber reactive dyes to make a variety of projects. Experiments will begin with immersion dyeing to create solid color swatches and a comprehensive dye book of color dying charts for student to use in the future. Surface design explorations will include block printing and painterly techniques with dyes. Over-dyeing and discharge processes will be introduced as methods of adding layers of color to cloth.

Lectures on contemporary, historical, and global use of color in artworks will vary greatly and cover various centuries and methods of making. Readings in color will include Josef Albers, John Gage, and David Batchelor to name a few. Critiques will emphasize the use of color as formal & conceptual element within artwork.

Students will complete several projects while testing and compiling over 100 dye test colors into a dye-sampler book with recipes for material explorations, and fabric dye testing. Students will also research color meaning, study basic color theory, and finish color-based projects of their own design and using textiles they have hand dyed as a final project.

Class Number

1465

Credits

3

Description

This studio course will consider how to compose a picture plane with a variety of materials including paper collage, fabric piecing, applique, heat press, direct dye application and other handwork, to create line and form. Students will make use of drawing and form invention methods including stitching and dying, in conjunction with, or in place of, painted surfaces. Projects and critiques will address the critical use of compositional elements and materials within the picture plane.

Class Number

1414

Credits

3

Description

This seminar examines critique within an open discourse style. Students will develop and articulate key concerns in their work during studio visits by writing, researching, and contextualizing their practice. We will address and write about art foregrounded in the individual practices of each student in a respectful and productive manner. Students from all departments are encouraged to participate. Active participation in all studio critiques, written evaluation, and shared readings is expected. We will evaluate artwork through art historical context, social & political climates, pragmatic skills, material practices, institutional frameworks, and lived experiences.

Class Number

2065

Credits

3

Description

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Class Number

2312

Credits

3 - 6

Description

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Class Number

2339

Credits

3 - 6