Installation Art
What story could your space tell?
A wall can become a world, a hallway can lead somewhere unexpected, and an ordinary room can tell a story. Minerva creates original, site-specific installations that respond to both the idea and the architecture, transforming familiar spaces into immersive environments that invite audiences to step inside and explore.
About the Work
It begins with an idea. Minerva sees an ordinary space and imagines what else it could become. She builds each installation by hand, shaping the work around the story and the space, allowing it to climb walls, cross ceilings, frame doorways, and transform the architecture itself into part of the experience. She thinks architecturally, cares about the details, tells stories, preserves memory, and just as importantly, wants people to experience something when they encounter the work. Familiar spaces become something unexpected, inviting the imagination to wander beyond the walls.
It’s not just about what she creates. It’s about why she creates it - and who she creates it for.
Abrons Arts Center, NYC | 2025 - Immersive installation handcrafted from paper.——————————————————
EXPLORE THE INSTALLATIONS
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COMMISSIONED BY ABRONS ARTS CENTER
Conceived, designed, hand-fabricated, and installed by Minerva Diaz, each commission transformed the familiar into the unexpected—turning paper into characters, walls into scenes, and ordinary rooms into spaces where imagination could take over.
Abrons Arts Center | 2025
Live! on Grand
Created for Abrons Arts Center's Live! on Grand talent show, this immersive paper installation transformed the Playhouse lobby into a theatrical environment featuring hand-fabricated buildings, a dimensional stage, pleated paper curtains, and articulated performers.
Detail Views | Individually hand-fabricated paper figures and architectural elements
Almost done
And the Winner Is...——————————————————
Enjoy the showWelcoming the CommunityWinter Carousel
Created for Abrons Arts Center, Winter Carousel transformed the historic Playhouse lobby into a world of movement and imagination, where the room itself became part of the ride. From floor to ceiling, the familiar lobby took on the spirit of a carousel—playful, theatrical, and just a little unexpected.
Welcome Aboard!
Behind the Work | Installation in progressAbrons Arts Center | 2024
Detail Views——————————————————
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Welcoming the CommunityPenguin Playhouse
FEATURED ON NY1
Abrons Arts Center | 2023
Enter the PlayhouseCreated for Abrons Arts Center, Penguin Playhouse transformed the historic Playhouse lobby into a whimsical Christmas world where penguins took over, imagination ran loose, and every turn offered something new to discover. The installation invited visitors to look up, look around, and linger a little longer. What began as a familiar lobby became a playful world of its own.
Detail ViewsDetail ViewsMeet the CastINDEPENDENTLY CONCEIVED INSTALLATIONS
Created outside of commissioned settings, these installations began with a story, a memory, or simply the possibility of seeing a familiar space differently. Each grew from Minerva’s own imagination—transforming everyday places into environments filled with meaning, discovery, and a little unexpected magic.
CHRISTMAS | 2022
The space becomes the canvas
Reimagined
THE EVOLUTION
VALENTINE | 2023
Hearts in Bloom
Walking in a Winter WonderlandHALLOWEEN | 2023
Reimagined the familiar
Amazon worker meets the unexpectedBeginning in 2021, Minerva transformed the shared spaces of her Lower East Side NYCHA community through a series of independently conceived seasonal installations. Hand-fabricated from paper and cardboard, the works extend across walls, ceilings, stairwells, and hallways—changing with the seasons, from snowflakes and winter landscapes to flowers, hearts, and Halloween scenes—turning familiar residential spaces into immersive environments created for the residents who call them home.
In December 2022, as the installations grew in scale, Minerva prepared the environment itself as part of the work. Drawing on her background as an industrial painter, she refreshed the doors, elevator, window areas, and railings, creating a clean visual canvas for the larger installation that followed.
NYCHA Jacob Riis Houses| 2021 - Present
HALLOWEEN | 2022
Expanding the scale
BEFORE THE TRANSFORMATION
THE SPACE, REIMAGINED
THE COMMUNITY WITHIN THE SPACE
HALLOWEEN | 2021
Where it began
SPRING | 2023
Changing with the seasons
Every space holds a possibility. A wall can become a world, a hallway can tell a story, and an ordinary room can become somewhere completely unexpected.
Lets explore the possibilites