About

Dia Bassett is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant (2022), the California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellowship (2021), two Quick Grants from Rising Arts Leaders San Diego, a Green Public Art Grant and the Isabel Craft Scholarship. Noted art collections are: The San Diego Workforce Partnership headquarters, and Ryan Brothers flagship store (Barrio Logan, San Diego).

Born and raised in San Diego, California, Dia has also traveled throughout Europe and Mexico. She lived in Italy while studying art and Italian. Now she lives in Boise, Idaho with her husband and daughter.

She is an arts educator with over ten years experience, leading collaborative teaching teams with projects focused on engagement, accessibility, relevance, and developmentally appropriate experiences for children and adults. She empowers youth and educators by involving them in the artistic process with a deep-dive into subject matter.

Artist Statement

I discover beauty among the messy remnants of forgotten clothing and linens. Using the markers of domestic life as a catalyst to create art, I weave, crochet, sew, and wrap fiber to make mid-to large-scale installations and wall pieces. Sheared discarded textiles become geometric and anthropomorphic forms in my study of women and our relationship to our surroundings. These explorations are fleshed out in fiber, clothing or my body, taking form as site-specific installations, sculptures, performances, and wearable art. I test fabric’s boundaries through physical manipulation— stretching, wrapping, drooping, and hanging fragments. When performing, I enmesh my body in material or allow tendrils to respond to my movement.

As I translate the complex relationships between seemingly mundane materials and our bodies, I transform linens, thread, and worn clothing, while envisioning their past stories. Being sourced from my own collection and from family and friends, the fabrics are imbued with history and personal meaning, linking them with time, movement, and memory. Experimenting with fabrics in varying degrees of density, I see the irregularities and imperfections of fiber's vulnerability and strength, a duality that becomes emblematic of womens’ bodies. I like to both challenge and embrace our definitions of femininity while revealing the farcical cluster of competing demands at the intersection of motherhood and womanhood.

CV available upon request.