for the sake of dancing in the street, co-organized by Yasmine Nasser Diaz, OXY ARTS, and Los Angeles Nomadic Division, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA,
the sound of your voice is home, ReflectSpace Gallery, Glendale Library, Glendale, CA,
rapture, 2023
Silk-rayon fiber etching, hand-embroidery, appliqué
60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)
furtive, 2023
Silk-rayon fiber etching with appliqué
36 x 30 in (91.4 x 76.2 cm)
relentless, 2023
Silk-rayon fiber etching, hand-embroidery, appliqué
60 x 48 in (152.4 x 121.9 cm)
3 / عيبeib, 2019
Neon and archival inkjet print on wood mount
Eye got you, 2021
In lieu of a signature, the artist provides an official Certificate of Authenticity Neon
18 x 18 in (45.7 x 45.7 cm)
Call Waiting, 2018
collage, glitter, and woven satin damask on hand-cut watercolor paper
30 x 22 in (76.2 x 55.9 cm)
Say No To Drugs, 2020
silk-rayon fiber etching
34 x 44 in (86.4 x 111.8 cm)
Thick as Thieves, 2020
Silk-rayon fiber etching
28 x 38 in (71.1 x 96.5 cm)
Noxzema and Lipliner, 2020
silk-rayon fiber etching
28 x 20 in (71.1 x 50.8 cm)
Yasmine Nasser Diaz is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice navigates overlapping tensions around religion, gender, and third-culture identity. Using collage, textiles, immersive installation, video, performance, and sound, Diaz mines her personal archives and collects found imagery and objects that reflect her Yemeni-American upbringing and create space for collective diasporic conversations. Often set within domestic spheres, Diaz creates narratives that center acts of resistance and bodily autonomy, convey individual histories, and celebrate global feminist protest movements.
Deeply influenced by the code-switching techniques used to navigate her multicultural upbringing, Diaz identifies and employs materials and strategies that present and embody complex subjectivities and multivalent identities. Most notably, Diaz uses a fiber etching technique that results in depictions of SWANA (Southwest Asian & North African) female identifying and non-binary individuals. Also known as velvet burnouts or devoré, Diaz’ fiber etched works draw attention to the Yemeni application of these fabrics in a style known as dir’, which symbolizes femininity, though it is often reserved for married or engaged women. As a carefully applied acidic paste dissolves the cellulose fibers of the velvet, Diaz’ images are revealed in the silk-based mesh that remains intact, sometimes casting shadows of burned figures on the walls behind the works.
Yasmine Nasser Diaz (b. Chicago, IL) has exhibited work internationally at venues including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, OXY ARTS / Occidental College, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, and OCHI in Los Angeles, CA; Arab American National Museum and Habibi House in Michigan; NADA at Governor’s Island in New York, NY; ZoHo in Rotterdam, Netherlands; and Station in Beirut, Lebanon. Diaz’ work has been featured in publications including The Los Angeles Times, artnet news, Artillery Magazine, Hyperallergic, Architectural Digest, Detroit Metro Times, and Artsy. Her work is included in various private and public collections including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, University of California Los Angeles, and the Arab American National Museum. Diaz lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2010
RESIDENCIES & AWARDS
2023
Grant Recipient, City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project, Los Angeles, CA
Cultural Trailblazer Grant, Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles, CA
2021
Artist Residency, Marble House, Dorset, VT
Fellow, Pratt>Forward, New York, NY (Online)
Efroymson Visiting Artist Residency, University of Michigan, Arbor, MI
2020
Artist in Residence, Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, MI
Emergency Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Creative Capital Award Semi-Finalist, New York, NY
2019
Project Grant for Dirty Laundry, Puffin Foundation, New York, NY
Visual Artist Fellowship, California Community Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Visual Artist Grant, Harpo Foundation, Johnson, VT
Emerging Artist Grant Nominee, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Artist in Residence, Habibi House, Detroit, MI
2018
Artist in Residence, Women’s Center for Creative Work, Los Angeles, CA
2017
Fellow, at land's edge, Los Angeles, CA
LECTURES & WORKSHOPS
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2016
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Arab American National Museum, Dearborn, MI
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
The Poetry Space, Berlin, Germany
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Don't miss this rave-inspired show at the Asian Art Museum before it closes
San Francisco Chronicle
January 13, 2026
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
New Asian Art Museum exhibition brings joy and glitter to San Francisco
The Voice of San Francisco
October 28, 2025
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Roombas scattering hot pink glitter take stage at Asian Art Museum
Mission Local
October 26, 2025
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
A moveable feast of MENA pop art at the MEI Gallery
Middle East Institute
September 23, 2025
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
2025 Fall Arts Guide
Washington City Paper
September 17, 2025
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Inside Arab Pop Art: Between East and West
This Is Yung
September 15, 2025
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
LACMA Acquires Yasmine Nasser Diaz's Truth or Dare
January 21, 2025
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
The Joys and Realities of Renting an Apartment in LA
Los Angeles Times
May 15, 2024
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
2023/24 City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project Grant Recipients
Department of Cultural Affairs
November 15, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
for the sake of dancing in the street at Oxy Arts
Contemporary Art Review LA
November 7, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
At the Armory Show, Artsy CEO Mike Steib Calls Out the Artists to Watch
Surface Magazine
September 5, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
An Insider's Guide to Manhattan's 2023 Armory Show
Paper City Magazine
August 29, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
for the sake of dancing in the street
OxyArts
June 3 - July 29, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Publisher's Eye: "For the Sake of Dancing in the Street"
Artillery Magazine
June 15, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Musings on a Major Exhibition: "Women Defining Women" at LACMA
The Markaz Review
June 26, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
LACMA’s latest exhibit honors women’s voices across the Middle East and beyond
USC Annenberg Media
May 3, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Included in Women Defining Women in the Middle East and Beyond at LACMA
Apr 23–Sep 24, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Don’t Forget to Call Home
Getty
Apr 12, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
In conversation with Ikram Lakhdhar
at the Getty Center
March 12, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
AN INSPIRED COLLAGE: Arts Calendar March 9-15
LA Weekly
March 8, 2023
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Architectural Digest
Welcome to Demi Lovato's Trippy Modern Farmhouse
September 7, 2022
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Cover Art Concept
Duke University Press
July 1, 2022
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Breakout Artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Starts Each Day With a Collage
and Gets Un-Stuck by Hula-Hooping
Artnet News
July 6, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Yasmine Nasser Diaz is For Your Eyes Only
No Basic Girls Allowed
Apr 9, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
some things we keep to ourselves
Artist Project
at UTA Artist Space
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Detroit Metro Times:
'To Make is To Stay' showcases
Arab artists and the desire to be
understood in a beautiful way
3/4/22
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Detroit Metro Times
‘My beloved community’
: How Arabs are creating
space in Detroit’s art scene
12/3/21
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
PBS
The only Arab American museum in the
nation is ‘much more than a building’
10/5/21
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
these illusory utopias
Studio 203
09/19/2021 - 10/23/2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
NI DE AQUÍ, NI DE ALLÁ
Charlie James Gallery
8/28/21 - 9/20/21
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Departures
Yasmine Nasser Diaz
The visual artist recounts her most beautiful restaurant experience.
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
MEI
Migration in Perpetuity: Yemeni Voices from the Diaspora
June 10, 2021
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Pratt
Pratt Fine Arts Launches a
New Mentorship Program to
Empower Emerging Artists
5/3/21
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Yasmine Nasser Diaze
included in The New Contemporaries Vol 2 at Residency
April 10 - June 5, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Artsy
Art: 10 Middle Eastern Artists to Discover
by Rawaa Talass Mar 18, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
at University of Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities Gallery
Feb 15 - April 16. Designed to be viewed through the gallery window.
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
ARTWRITE #16: Unseen Art
how three artists dealt with Covid foiling their shows
Jan 30, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
The Abusable Past
BY SANA KHAN January 25, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Harpo Grant Recipient 2020
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Velvet Revolution: Yasmine Nasser Diaz
by Julie Schulte | Jan 5, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Raw Femme: Meet Yasmine Nasser Diaz, Multidisciplinary Artist & Fiber Etching Warrior
Jan 1, 2021
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
11:11 A Creative Collective
Surveillance and censorship within one’s own community.
With Yasmine Nasser Diaz and Loujain Bager
Tuesday, 11/10, 3-4pm PST
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Yasmine Nasser Diaz featured on the podcast Hyde or Practise
Friday, 11/13
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Painting in Text Interview
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Queensfest Interview with Michelle Joan Papillion
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Featured on the Artist Decoded Podcast
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Shoutout LA Feature
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Included in Artists in Presidents:
Artist In Presidents is directed by Constance Hockaday and produced in partnership with UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance and Stanford Live Arts-- with support from The Kenneth Rainin Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and TED.
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
ARTS CALENDAR (HYBRID MODEL): OCTOBER 8-11
SHANA NYS DAMBROT OCTOBER 7, 2020
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Yasmine Diaz interview with Caroline Kipp
"Social Distancing Studio Visits"
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Yasmine Diaz included in:
Bitch Magazine: Issue #88
Fall 2020
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Yasmine Nasser Diaz
Detroit Art Review
"Soft Powers @ Arab American National Museum"
July 19th, 2020
by Jonathan Rinck
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