by Bryan Martin, March 8, 2026

A 1987 newspaper article about the artist Frank Diaz Escalet noted that his inlaid leather paintings were joined by seams so fine that they were barely noticeable, even upon touch. The imperceptibility of Escalet’s methods is akin to his presence in art history: extraordinary but often overlooked. The Puerto Rican-born, New York-raised artist began his career operating a renowned Greenwich Village leather shop that catered to famous clients, including the Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin.

After relocating to Maine in the 1970s, Escalet began producing figurative inlaid-leather compositions that were exhibited internationally. Ronald Reagan even collected his work. Now, a new show of Frank Diaz Escalet’s leatherwork and painting, on view at Hollis Taggart (through April 11), offers a moment to reappraise the artist and his practice, which, in his own words, always centered on “the average people, their lives, their work.”

The artist’s identification with common people wasn’t just lip service, though; he meshed a quotidian trade with fine art by carefully cutting shapes of dyed leather, inlaying them into his compositions, and painting over each shape to make an image. While Escalet’s methods were proudly self-taught, the moniker does little justice to his fascinating background, his family’s support, his underappreciated formal ingenuity, and his determination that taught him more than any fine arts program ever could.

Among his most iconic works is Baile De Los Jivaros (1991), showing a group of dancers in front of a band in Puerto Rico. The painting’s title references los jíbaros, Puerto Rican common farmers who sustained themselves off the land—a larger symbol of national rectitude. The lively scene reflects Escalet’s identity as a proud Puerto Rican artist born in Ponce in 1930, as well as the resilience he brought to the United States when his family immigrated while he was just four. Escalet grew up in Spanish Harlem and Greenwich Village and left school after the eighth grade to work in factories alongside many other New York immigrants in the early 20th century. Along with his Puerto Rican heritage, his childhood during the Great Depression profoundly impacted the artist: “I saw the real hard misery of the people when I was growing up.”