Portfolio of Works
The Luna Park Elephant is a new original performance that blends history and fantasy to reimagine the story of Alice, an Asian elephant brought to Coney Island in 1904 to entertain crowds. Her purported “escape” swim across New York Harbor was newsworthy but also symbolizes resistance and longing. Using light, drawing, and found objects, this performance contrasts early twentieth‑century New York artifice with the splendor of the natural world, and marks Matyas’s first shadow‑theatre work, continuing her exploration of the intersection of science and storytelling.
Performed in 2026 as part of the Object Movement Puppetry Festival at Dixon Place theatre in New York City, the show it was conceived, written and designed by Diane Matyas. Puppeteer/performers include Diane Matyas & Henri Ewaskio. The score & music producer & performance created by Joe Endozo. Performance photographs by Richard Termine
This project is supported with funding from the Center at West Park, The Henson Foundation, The Howard Gilman Foundation, New York Department of Cultural Affairs Art Fund, and an artist residency at Maker Space NYC.York
This assembly of narrative images - a work in progress- about Alice, the elephant that swam from Luna Park, Coney Island to Staten Island in 1904. Included are a site-specific interactive public art work, drawings, prints, pastel paintings, and a series of storyboard concepts that will lead to a shadow theatre work. Don't miss the videos of her "swimming" on-site and shadow theatre experiments. Her movement is one of a puppet, her colorful patterns are monoprints inspired by her Sri Lankan/East Asian heritage, and her buoyancy and desire for freedom is the story I want to tell.
This is a portfolio supporting my 2026 shadow theatre work in progress; for review regarding grant and residency applications.
A series of underwater marine animals images and curated underwater videos, all focused on New York Harbor. The images became a public art project installed on public building facades near the water's edge. A selection can currently be seen on Governor's Island at the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, on the 3rd floor balcony and in the main lobby. During the Summer of 2024 the series was part of the New York City Art in the Park program at historic Faber Park & Pool, along the Kill Van Kull on Staten Island. The curated playlist of NY Bay underwater video clips is by collaborator David Lindeman. See them at Videos of NY Harbor Marine Life. Submerged was supported by DCLA Art Fund Grants via Staten Island Arts.
Merfolk uses hyper-romantic imagery - coupled with commercial fishing systems. The project that started during COVID lockdown in NYC, working in my studio and in the water. Simultaneously, Swimmers of Anarchy my swim pod was established allowing wildswimming in NY Bay to influence the sensorial notes of the drawings. My YouTube playlist of these adventures is called “New York City Mermaid Project”.
Drawings generated by animals real and imagined. With surreal settings, architecture, and objects.
Mermaids and swimming elephants, for starters.
A Monoprint is a unique object- their are no copies. My work in 2020-2022 includes vivid color gelatin prints made in my home studio, and soon work made in my new, evolving, printshop Peanut Gallery Press, with my intagio press.
My public art, both built and proposed, are site specific and often in collaboration with partner artists. Working as a team broadens the understanding, impact, and ambition of the work. In this collection you will see Desert Pergola, built in Mesa, Arizona and Monkey Puzzle in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, created with Elizabeth Egbert. Finalist proposals include: NYC Department of Transportation Art in the Subways' Whitehall Street Station, and Palm Court, for Queen's College (Elizabeth Egbert, Collaborator) more recently Fly Way Home, created with Kristi Pfister for St. George, Staten Island for the New York Design Trust for Public Space via the SIARTS office.
Teaching art, at museums, schools and colleges, has been an ongoing adventure. Organizations where I have workshops, lectures, and programs include: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Cornell University, Wagner College, Studio In A School, The Queens Museum, Staten Island Museum, The Noble Maritime Collection, and The Staten Island Children's Museum, and New York City Schools.
