Queer Creators Collection: Introducing Diana Carla Rowe
In this new series, GO will spotlight queer creators who have unique contributions to the art world. Our first subject is Diana Carla Rowe, an NYC-based painter/poet.
New York City-based artist Diana Carla Rowe creates large-scale abstract art with touches of poetry woven into her paintings. In her work, she melts her passions of writing and painting together to reflect herself, her community, and the people around her.
Diana’s perspective on the inherent intimacy and beauty of queerness is ultimately what allows her to bring her lived experience into her art. She elaborated by telling GO, “I think everything I create has to do with my Blackness and queerness … being queer and existing as a black queer person is an act of protest in itself.” She voiced that there is no other way for queer Black artists and queer artists of color to exist other than unapologetically and authentically.
Part of Diana’s creative inspiration was attributed to her parents, who moved to America in the ‘80s from Jamaica to set a foundation for the generations after them. Although her parents didn’t have the financial option to be artists, their experience and efforts afforded her the privilege of choice to be a full-time artist. Diana got crucially honest about her choice to follow creative expression as a career, and what that means for her. “I think as queer black people and people of color we have this kind of obligation to show up in these industries where they’re pushing us out and telling us we don’t deserve things and that our voices don’t have value. It’s our responsibility to show up and create our own lane,” she told GO.
One of Diana’s earliest memories of artist inspiration was at the age of 15, visiting the MOMA and seeing Basquiat’s work for the first time in person. She remembers being so enthralled by his work. She had never seen anything like it, as she had primarily been exposed to art created exclusively by white men. She began to immerse herself in works from Basquiat, James Baldwin, Nina Simone, and the Harlem Renaissance where creation was happening in a vastly different climate, yet paved the way for so many artists today. She told GO, “If you think about it, they were existing in the same way we were, and they didn’t know they were doing something so revolutionary,” speaking to existence as resistance
Diana’s piece “Hunger” (2024) was made in London for a solo exhibition when she did a residency with the art agency “Acrylicize.” The piece was inspired by the constant change we undergo as humans, and how we aren’t always informed on how to exist within that change. Her question, “What is your source of hunger?” reminisces upon her self-reflection as a creator. Her question. “What is eating away at you?” draws on imposter syndrome, lacking resources to create, and resistance to confining boxes of creation. The piece was made from gouache acrylic paint and water-based ink. The individual faces in the piece are made by a single continuous stroke with details added at the end to be emblematic of her visual thinking.
“Exceeding Expectations” (2022) is a 60×40 inch piece made in Brooklyn for her solo exhibition “The Colors of Generational Grief.” Diana explores the written parts of the painting and notes her introspection, “As a Black woman I feel like I have this habit of almost being a martyr, and always putting off my needs in pursuit of caring for other people.”
“How Does Love Show Itself” (2022) is a 60×90 inch piece made for a solo exhibition in Miami. Diana created this piece after flipping through her notes and putting together unfinished entries. Her question, “How does love show itself to you?” draws on how love impacts her life and urges her audience to think about love languages, acceptance, and how we receive love both positively and negatively. She notes “throwing little easter eggs in there” like, “I’m selfish with my care, I never learned to share.” This piece came together to reflect her diary-like thought process and was opened up to interpretation by her audience.
Diana is currently working on a new coffee table book “My name is Diana, and I no longer have the desire to self sabotage.” For more of Diana’s breathtaking and eye-widening work, visit her instagram @dianacarlarowe. Her commissions are currently open and prints are available.
