The migratory condition distinguishes the art of the end of this century. It is about the movement of figures, colors, form from one shore to another, from one time to another, from one culture to another culture. In painting, for this reason, we witness the ceremony of transition: the messages come from far and develop in the dialogue. The flow of this transcontinental and multilingual voyage is literal (a meeting of aduanas, languages and times), but also it is symbolic (a meshing of desires, rites and protocols). In the actual art this produces the displacement and decentralization of the old, stables notions (the figure, the landscape, the model) and imposes on us the mental processes (fluidity of color, movement of forms, languages of process). This migratory art declares the vulnerability of the body but also the strength of its adventure. And, moreover, affirms the fleeting but solid space of a threshold.

      All of these characteristics have a place in the paintings of Raphael Díaz, a Latin­American artist, based in Providence whose art demonstrates...