Diego Cortez

Background

Curtis was born in Geneva, Illinois in September 1946, and grew up in Wheaton, Illinois.

Career

In 1981 he curated the art show New New York/New Jersey Wave. He has been a well-established art adviser since the early 1980s. In 1973, he adopted the artist pseudonym Diego Cortez.

That year he earned a Master of Fine Arts in film, video, and performance at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago studying under Stan Brakhage, Richard Teitelbaum, Anthony Braxton, Nam June Paik and Kenneth Anger.

Later that year he moved to Brooklyn. The term Number Wave became used in downtown New York City concurrent with the 1981 show entitled New New York/New Jersey Wave that Cortez organized for MoMA PS1.

Cortez had organized new wave music festivals in Europe. Diego Cortez was the New York City production advisor to Brian Eno on the no wave record Number New York that appeared on Island Records and worked with Sylvère Lotringer and Christian Marazzi as art director for Autonomia: Post-Political Politics on Semiotext(e) that came out of the philosophy department at Columbia University.

He also was a contributor to the book American Broadcasting Company Number Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery that was edited by Alan West. Moore and Marc Miller.

Achievements

• He also had lectured at Yale University and was co-founder (with Steve Mass and Anya Phillips) of the Mudd Club.

Membership

He has worked as studio assistant to Dennis Oppenheim and Vito Acconci, has performed with Hermann Nitsch and is a founding member of Colab (Collaborative Projects).