RAD has taught in museums, public and independent schools and community centers. Student Artwork

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ABOUT Rick Anthony Diaz

Rick Anthony Diaz is a New York City based artist whose work explores social change through the lens of a child. Born in Los Angeles, he is the child of Cuban immigrants. RAD majored in Fine Arts with a minor in Art Education from The School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He has exhibited in New York and abroad, received a grant from the NYC City Artist Corps, and completed a residency at Watershed Studios in Galway, Ireland.

THE TOYLAND WARS SERIES

The Toyland Wars is a narrative painting series born out of the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. Political upheaval is reimagined through the lens of a child with the use of classic toys, while following the tradition of historical paintings. Behind the colorful pop-art facade, the paintings reveal a deeper truth.

Tropes and compositions found in historical narrative paintings by Eugène Delacroix, Jacques-Louis David and John Singleton Copley have been adopted in this series. The narrative of this series follows the green army as they try to take Toyland in a military coup. The rest of the toys, who normally keep to themselves in their own subsection, such as Doll land and Board Game land, have decided to band together to fight the toy army.

Being an art educator to young children has affected the way RAD approached this series. It has motivated him to hope for a better future for his students. Like gruesome Grimms fairy tales, this story is like a parable on how to cope with a sometimes cruel world.

TOYLAND WARS SERIES
 

LEXICON SERIES

No one told me when I started teaching that my students would inspire me more than I did them. Child-like imagery bled into my own art as I appropriated their drawings and created my own lexicon of doodles. I assimilated their hopes for a better world in uncertain times.

My obsession over way-finding signage and scientific diagrams began to blend with hand-drawn doodles while wrestling with personal trauma from my past.

Archetypes like the lonely superhero began doing battle with the monster in the closet by way of pen, pencil and paint on paper. But who is there to save him from the grief and post traumatic stress?