Recent

New solo work on The Hoosac Institute Journal #7, a wondrous interdisciplinary project curated by Jenny Perlin.

Work acquired by the Stiftung Konzeptuelle Kunst, Germany, Oct 2020.

Equal Rights (ER) Guide, a participatory mapping project released by the Unconfirmed Makeshift Museum (UMM), September 2020.

Residency at the Kodokan Judo Institute, Tokyo, Japan. Supported by a Hoff Family Foundation grant. November-December, 2019.

Infinite Unbalancing Directions, a performative installation. SUR: Biennial, part of the section titled Southern Geometries: Contemporary Non-Objective Art curated by James MacDevitt at Cerritos College Art Gallery. August 26 – October 4, 2019.

The Pink Elephant in the Room Disrupts Patterns with a Mix of Stubbornness and Unapologetic Didacticism / El Elefante Rosado en la Habitación Interrumpe Patrones con una Mezcla de Testarudez y Didactismo Impenintente. In  These Creatures, at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Cindy Rehm. September 9 – November 23, 2019.

Presentation at “Martial Arts, Culture and Politics,” 5th Annual Martial Arts Studies Conference, Chapman University, May 23-24, 2019. Organized by Paul Bowman (Cardiff University) and Andrea Molle.

Every Woman Biennial, Los Angeles Bendix Building, through June 2019.

drj – dr. julius | ap, CENTURY. idee bauhaus, a drj project contributing to 100 jahre bauhaus. Berlin, April through June 2019.

El Elefante Rosado en la Habitación Aprende a Responder Agudamente ante Situaciones Hostiles / The Pink Elephant in the Room Learns to Respond Sharply to Hostile Situations, part of the series  The Pink Elephant In The Room. For El Mañana No Existe, curated by Lorena Gonzalez for the Galería Beatriz Gil in Caracas, Venezuela, through March, 2019.

Solo show: Everyday Grappling Operations, Orange County Museum of Art, November 3, 2018, through March 17, 2019.

Rema Hort Mann Foundation 2019 Emerging Artist Grant nominee

CIFO 2020 Grants and Commissions Program nominee

Mariángeles Soto-Díaz began her art and judo studies in Venezuela, currently one of the most violent and polarized countries in the world but then a promising oil-and-abstraction-producing nation. Working in new genres, Soto-Díaz uses social practice, installation and performance to think through affect, soft power and gender. Her pluriversal position threads lineages, histories and sensibilities with an underlying promise of futurity.

Soto-Díaz holds a BA in Art and a minor in Psychology from Hampshire College, an MA in Aesthetics and Politics from CalArts and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. She was an Assistant Professor at Hampshire College for five years before relocating to California. Soto-Díaz was awarded an Oberman Grant Wood fellowship at the University of Iowa, and has also taught at Occidental College and the University of California, Irvine, where she is currently a Research Associate in the Latin American Studies program. Her work has been exhibited at venues including the Orange County Museum of Art, MASS MoCA, El Museo del Barrio in NYC, the University of Iowa Museum, the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art, and the Wignall Museum, among others, and has been reviewed in publications such as Hyperallergic, the LA Times, Art Nexus, El Nacional, El Universal and Arte al Día.

Soto-Díaz has worked in the non-profit sector, including teaching community arts programs for organizations such as Arco Iris, Nuestras Raíces and Casa Latina in western Massachusetts, and the Institute for Arts Education in San Diego. She has designed and secured funding for art programs for under-served youth, and also worked as the interim Director for the Public Service and Social Change program at Hampshire College, supervising students working in the community. Soto-Díaz lives and works in Southern California, where she is the founder of the Unconfirmed Makeshift Museum (UMM), a shifting platform for contemporary art through exhibitions and events in a neighborhood setting.