Diane Arrieta

At the heart of my practice lies a deep inquiry into the relationship between environmental change, material culture, and feminine resilience. Through ceramics, fiber, and installation, I create sculptural works and immersive environments that reflect the quiet intelligence of nature—its systems of shelter, regeneration, and resistance. My chosen materials articulate these tensions. Earth-based forms like clay, jute, and burlap draw from ancestral craft traditions and connect my work to land, memory, and the labor of women across generations. In contrast, industrial elements such as colored plexiglass, salvaged steel, and urban debris speak to rupture: the commodification of both nature and the feminine body in contemporary life. With a background in Wildlife and Ecosystems Health, I approach art-making as a form of ecological listening. I focus on the vulnerability of endangered species as symbols of systemic imbalance and cultural loss. Nesting architectures, constructed habitats, and ritual-inspired forms become sites for reflection—inviting viewers to pause, feel rooted, and consider new ways of belonging.

Diane Arrieta is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice bridges environmental science, cultural memory, and feminist materiality. Born in Clearfield, Pennsylvania and raised in Oil City—former site of a Seneca Indian village and later, the birthplace of the U.S. petroleum industry—her early life shaped a lasting awareness of the tension between ancestral land and industrial disruption. These layered histories continue to inform her work, which explores the delicate relationships between nature, resilience, and transformation.

Of Native American (Lenapi) and European (Czechoslovakian agrarian) descent, Arrieta draws from inherited perspectives on land stewardship and ecological interconnectedness. Her tactile installations often incorporate clay, fiber, and found materials, merging traditional craft with contemporary sculptural forms.

Arrieta holds a BFA in ceramic sculpture and an MSc in Wildlife Health from the University of Edinburgh. Her work examines the impact of human behavior on species decline and biodiversity loss, while also advocating for the well-being of women and children—especially in the face of environmental crisis.

Her work has been shown widely across the United States and the United Kingdom, with recent solo and group exhibitions at the Cornell Museum, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Tallahassee, and the Art & Culture Center of Hollywood. She has received numerous accolades, including the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship and the Hector Ubertalli Award for the Visual Arts. She is the founding director of the International Humanities Project Curatorial Lab and has held leadership roles in academic exhibition programming and public art initiatives.