Info — DIANE MACHADO

DIANE MACHADO is an interdisciplinary artist working across drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and installation. Drawing on archival research, artifacts, and collective memory, Machado investigates their first-generation American experience between the Azores and the United States. Engaging diasporic material culture, her work examines how identity and representation are shaped and fragmented by colonial legacies, migration, and structural power imbalances. Through the contextualization of prints, shelves, and collected objects, she makes visible the structures that hold in-between-ness as a form of embodied resistance.

Born and raised in the Azorean-Portuguese immigrant communities of East Cambridge and south-eastern Massachusetts, Machado earned a BFA in Drawing and Printmaking from the University of New Hampshire and later studied graphic design at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Alongside a career in design, they returned to their studio practice, refining sustainable printmaking methods and materials.

Machado has exhibited in regional exhibitions, including the Boston Printmakers Student Show, Print Forward at the Frances Euphemia Thompson Gallery, Fervent Chorus at the Doran Gallery, and the 25th Anniversary Zea Mays Printmaking Members’ Show. She is a recipient of grants from the Somerville Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council and received their MFA from MassArt in 2025.

Education

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.), Studio Arts, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, MA, 2025
Graphic Design Certificate Program, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, MA, 2006–2009
Art Therapy & Adolescent Psychology, Post-Bachelor, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, 2002–2004
Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Printmaking & Drawing, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 1999
Printmaking & Book Arts, Studio Arts Center International (SACI), Florence, Italy, 1997

Teaching Experience

Drawing into Print, Projectos Studio, Azores, Portugal–expected summer 2026
Teaching Assistant, Contemporary Printmaking, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, MA, 2024
Teaching Assistant, Major Studio, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, Boston, MA, 2024–2025
Book Arts Instructor, AA&D Workshop Series, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2016
Visual Arts Assistant, Montclair Middle School, Oakland, CA, 2009–2011
Visual Arts Instructor, After School Program, Winter Hill Neighborhood School, Somerville, MA, 2005
Visual Arts Instructor, After School Program, Centro Presente, Somerville, MA, 2003–2005

Additional Professional Experience

Design Consultant & Creative Director, Machado Design, 2006–present
Graduate Liaison & Fine Arts Visiting Artist Coordinator, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA, 2024–2025
Assistant Design Director, Alumni Affairs & Development, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2012–2017
Senior Designer, Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 2008, 2011
Art Director, Co-founder, Gilman Street Media, Berkeley, CA, 2009–2011

Selected Exhibitions

Zea Mays 25th Anniversary Member Exhibition, Hosmer Gallery, Northampton, MA, November 2025
Fervent Chorus, Curator, Doran Gallery, Boston, MA, 2025
MFA Thesis Exhibit, MassArtxSoWa Gallery, Boston, MA, 2025
Post-tense, Curator, MassArtxSoWa Gallery, Boston, MA, 2024
Boston Printmakers Student Exhibit, Doran Gallery, Boston, MA, 2023
Print Forward, Curator, The Frances Euphemia Thompson Gallery, Boston, MA, 2023
Crosscurrents, Sanford Gallery, Florence, MA, 2022

Awards

Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) Recovery Grant, 2023
Local Cultural Council (LCC) Somerville Grant, 2021
The University & College Designers Association (UCDA) Award of Excellence, 2015

Selected Publications & Collections

Living Archive–Agonias, Self-Published Artist Book, Collection Godine Library,
Massachusetts College of Art & Design, 2025
Artist Lecture, DMC Lecture Hall, Massachusetts College of Art, 2025
Boston Printmakers Student Show Catalog, 2024
Capital Campaign Design, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Harvard University Archives, 2015
Private Art Collections, Rye, NH, 1999; Cambridge, 2006; Oakland, CA, 200

Professional Development

Green Printmaking Certificate Program, Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA–expected summer 2026
Accordion Book Arts, Shepherd & Maudsleigh Studio, Newton, MA, 2025
Artist Mentorship Program, Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA, 2020–2022
Tetra Pak Drypoint Workshop, Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA, 2020
Improvisational Woodcut, Abrazos Press, Somerville, MA, 2019–2020
Etching Line & Tone Workshop, Zea Mays Printmaking, Florence, MA, 2019
Monotype Color Printing & Akua Inks Workshop, Concord Center for the Arts, Concord, MA, 2019
Experimental Approaches in Relief Printmaking, Maud Morgan Center for the Arts, Cambridge, MA, 2017–2018

Professional & Community Affiliation

Zea Mays Printmaking Studio Member, Florence, MA, 2021–present
Shepherd & Maudsleigh Studio Member, Newton, MA, 2022–2023
The Professional Association For Design (AIGA) Member, 2008–2021
Somerville Community Corporation (SCC) Board Member, Somerville, MA, 2013–2015
Washington Street Arts Center Executive Steering Committee Member, Somerville, MA, 2003–2005