“I use images to explore questions related to displacement, identity, and memory. I understand my work as a vehicle of exploration of the time and place we inhabit. The construction of autobiographical threads allows me to inform larger universal fields of experience. I’m interested in the development of topographies through documentary photography to slow down the rapid, and sometimes contradicting, changes in my community. This allows me the construction of narratives, which helps me contextualize what is intangible, such as the loss of memory or the underlooked disruptions in the social fabric.”

“My work’s overall goal is to spark a conversation. Ignite a self-introspective approach that can be engaged into dialogue that serves as a conduit of change and awareness.”

Diego Waisman’s work presents the contrast between the past and the present, while at the same time posing questions about the future. It invites conversation through commonplace images that exhibit social commentary centered around Miami. In this exhibition, he presents Fade, Grow, and Now Leasing. They showcase the varying nature of Miami’s landscape, dealing with themes of displacement, gentrification, and urban development. In Fade, one can appreciate broken tiles, the foundation of a home destroyed. It provides contrast to Grow, in which a building grows tall as it is being constructed, this time, a new foundation is built. Now Leasing presents questions of status and livelihood, as a trailer is juxtaposed with a new building.

Biography:

Buenos Aires-born, Miami-based Diego Waisman is a photo-based artist that explores themes of social and economic displacement, exile, family, identity, and origins. Much of his work revolves around the post-memories of his family diaspora and his journey as an immigrant to the United States.

His latest project, For I Shall Already Have Forgotten You, is an 100-page photobook that explores the disappearance and gentrification of South Florida’s Mobile Home Communities.

In 2021 he received both the Berkowitz and FIU’s Visual Arts Scholarship. Additionally, his work has been shown in Miami and selected for the 30th Annual Emerald National Coast Juried Exhibition at the Mattie Kelly Art Center – Northwest Florida College where he obtained show’s second prize.
In 2022, Mr. Waisman’s became a Green Space Initiative grantee for their open call a new ‘Coppertone Girl’. His installation, ‘This Community’, was included in the ChromaTone: Voices from Miami Exhibition.

He holds a degree in computer animation and Multimedia from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, a Studio Art degree from the University of Miami, and is an MFA candidate at Florida International University.

Website: diego.waisman.info

Email: diego@waisman.info

Instagram: @dwaisman