The first ARTSpeak lecture will feature artist David Diao. He will be speaking on Monday, October 4, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm, in FIT’s Katie Murphy Amphitheatre, in the Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center (also known as the “D Building”). The building’s entrance is on the northwest corner of 7th Avenue and 27th Street.

David Diao was born in China, and emigrated to the U.S. at the age of twelve. Diao is an influential painter and teacher, whose work melds personal and art historical references. His 2009 New York solo exhibition was based on his return to his childhood home in Chengdu and finding it destroyed. Through the use of text, drawing, images, and painterly surfaces, his work explores the intersection of the history of art, culture, and personal meaning.

David Diao, Slanted MoMA, 1995, Vinyl and acrylic on canvas, 46 x 70 inches

David Diao in Dessau, Germany, 2009.

David Diao, Odd Man Out, 1974, Acrylic on canvas, 90 x 84 inches