Diego Villalta is a Salvadoran-born multidisciplinary artist and musician based in Naarm/Melbourne. He migrated to Australia as a child as part of a large cohort of refugees fleeing the Salvadoran civil war (1979–1992), an experience that continues to inform his creative practice.

Working across visual art and music, Diego maintains an expansive practice grounded in cultural memory, rhythm, movement, and ritual. He is a full-time performing musician and completed a Bachelor of Music Performance (Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Alongside his formal musical training, he has developed his visual art practice through a self-directed and materially driven approach.

Since his earlier exhibitions, Diego has performed extensively as a musician in Australia and internationally, contributing to a wide range of live performances, recordings, and collaborative projects. His ongoing engagement with performance—both sonic and visual—forms a central throughline in his work.

In 2019, Diego was recognised by the Salvadoran Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his contributions to the arts and for representing Salvadoran culture in Australia and internationally. His visual art practice includes solo exhibitions such as WEAVES (2019) and BEAMS (2020), as well as numerous commissioned works. These include large-scale murals for Garf’s (Hampton), Cuff (Melbourne), and Maize y Cacao (Melbourne), stained glass design for St Michael’s Church in Berwick, and album and promotional artwork for multiple Melbourne musicians and bands including Fulton Street.

Diego will present a solo exhibition in February 2026, marking a new chapter in his ongoing exploration of identity, movement, and cultural continuity. He lives and works in Melbourne’s CBD, immersed in the intensity and vitality of the city’s creative landscape.

AWARDS, TOURING/SHOW HIGHLIGHTS & REVIEWS

Bachelor of Music Performance with Honours from the Victorian College of the Arts/ Melbourne University

Footscray Community Arts Centre Artist in Resident (Pataphysics)

2012 Very West Winner

36th Concours Internationaux de Bourges / Netart“, IMEB Bourges / France and X Media Forum / 31st International Film Festival / Special Mention, Moscow / Russia for Spam the Musical, 2009

2003 Winner of the Art Victoria's Intergeneration Mentoring Project for the Arts Scheme

6th Annual UNESCO Phuket International Jazz Day Festival

Festivals - Sydney Opera House Homeground Festival

Back to back yearly Japan touring (Tokyo and Kansai regions)

Woodford Folk Festival

Falls Festival

Big sound Brisbane

St. Jerome's Laneway Festival Melbourne

Rainbow Serpent Festival

Wide Open Space Alice Springs

Thailand shows

St. Kilda Festival

Indonesia

White Night Melbourne

Peat's Ridge Sydney

Folk rhythm and life

Rise Festival

Melbourne International Jazz festival

Melbourne Women's International Jazz Festival

Darebin Music Feast

High Vibes

Balcony TV

Paynesville Music Festival

Stonington Jazz Festival

Channel 10 awards

Rip Curl Pro Surf Competition

"Barton and Villalta have made an album that contrasts a becalmed inner world with the chaos and beauty of the world that they see around them. That they have managed this in such a melodic and engrossing way suggests a greater constancy to jazz's restless spirit than any number of aspirational takes on the 'Great American Songbook,' but then each to their own. Highly recommended"

- Phil Barnes (All About Jazz)

"This new album, made up entirely of compositions by their guitarist Diego Villalta, is really, really good. I'm enjoying this immensely. Some beautiful playing here."

- Steve Robertson (3RPC, PBS FM)

"Fingers in pies, foot in doors and knee deep in the thick of Melbourne's music scene. Diego is the go-to man for getting it done and delivering that sweet riff."

- Miss P. (The House of Marc and Linker)

"Marks, who is a trumpeter as well as producer rapper and soul singer, in combination with his mate, jazz guitarist Diego Villalta, make a fusion of live instrumentation and beats that is surprisingly broad."

- C. Cobcroft (4ZZZ)

"Barton and Villalta have certainly produced a work of contraries and anyone with an open mind and two receptive ears should welcome this brave, sensitive and not infrequently brilliant music."

- Roger Farbey (All About Jazz)