Bio

Interdisciplinary Venezuelan-American artist Mariángeles Soto-Díaz works across studio, installation, social practice and performance, using reparative modes of inquiry to decenter violence – epistemic, structural and domestic. In her studio practice, Soto-Díaz uses non-traditional materials such as neighborhood detritus, spices, UPC codes, rubber and coconuts, as a way to metabolize colonial histories and work towards epistemological justice. The social practice dimension of her work involves collaborations with martial artists, participatory projects, experimental performance, working at domestic violence shelters, and directing the nomadic Unconfirmed Makeshift Museum (UMM). Soto-Díaz’s work has been exhibited at institutions including the Orange County Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, El Museo del Barrio and the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, and has been featured in publications including Remains-Tomorrow: Themes in Contemporary Latin American Abstraction by curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill (Hatje Cantz), the Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture Journal (UC Press), and Monique Roelofs’ Strange Tastes: Aesthetics and the Public in Latin American and Latinx Feminisms (Duke University Press, 2026). She holds masters degrees from the California Institute of the Arts and CGU, and at UC Irvine she is a Lecturer in the Department of Art and a Research Associate at the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center.

Major solo projects include a three-part series of installation/performance exhibitions, Everyday Grappling Operations at the Orange County Museum of Art (2018-19), Infinite Unbalancing Directions at the SUR:Biennial (2019) and Gentle Prowess Deliberations at Grand Central Art Center (2022-23). Her ongoing Pink Elephant in the Room series has been exhibited in Venezuela, the US, and Europe, and other projects have been exhibited at MASS MoCA, El Museo del Barrio, Stanley Museum, LACE, Smack Mellon and the Torrance Art Museum, 18th Street Art Center and the MAK Center for Art and Architecture. Soto-Diaz has also worked extensively in both higher education and community settings, including creating art programs for underserved youth in both Massachusetts and California and collaborating on an NIH-supported project with a health sciences lab at UC Irvine. She lives and works in Southern California.

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)