Rosana Castrillo Diaz

UNTITLED

2012
mica and rice paper on paper
50 1/2 x 50 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches

Spanish-born, San Francisco-based Rosana Castrillo Diaz’s works display a masterful, yet subtle, exploration of light, shadow, and surface. Her white, monochromatic works made of paper possess a quiet simplicity that requires the viewer to slow down. In this untitled work, mica (a reflective mineral) and rice paper form a crumpled, undulated relief for light, reflection, and shadow to play across, constantly shifting as the sun moves throughout the day. In a sense, Castrillo Diaz continues the legacy set out by Piero Manzoni with his Achromes, though Castillo Diaz’s deliberate and delicate approach to forming her materials sets her apart. Castrillo Diaz is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the UC Berkeley Art Museum; and the Mills College Art Museum, Oakland. The UCSF Mission Bay campus features a permanent wall mural on the second floor of their Community Center building by Castrillo Diaz, and the artist created a site-specific commission on the bridge to the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rooftop Garden.