Born: 1977

Biography Vincent Valdez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas and is the youngest artist whose works are in the Chicano Collection exhibition. His first artistic influences came from the canvases of his late great-grandfather, an artist from Spain. Valdez began drawing at age three; as early as kindergarten, he realized his artistic abilities differed from others. While participating in a mural project at San Antonio's Esperanza Peace and Justice Center at age 10, Valdez decided art would be his career. He worked with his mentor, artist/muralist Alex Rubio, on murals around the Alamo City, eventually painting on his own. Upon graduating from Burbank High School, Valdez received a full scholarship to the International Fine Arts College in Miami, Florida. After one year, he accepted a full scholarship and transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, where he completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration. He has had one-person shows at the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, the San Antonio Art League Museum, and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas. He is represented by Finesilver Gallery, also in San Antonio. He has also exhibited his work at Parsons University, Paris; the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Smithsonian; and the Mexican Museum in Chicago. His work is included in the collection of Cheech Marin, and is part of the traveling exhibition Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge. Valdez exhibits and works on commissioned pieces and teaches art to middle school students in San Antonio. Curriculum Vitae   VVal_Bio05.pdf Statement A menacing mood permeates the form and content of my most recent work. As in the past, I am dealing with expressions that intertwine traditions and stereotypes with themes that are familiar to my generation. In developing these works, however, I came to see the figures not only as forms frozen in time but also as captives of a universal culture of sex and violence. Through the use of a foreboding palette of dark hues and dim light, I have tried to vest the figures with a keen self-awareness that is both evocative and erotic. In their gaze, one can read both a sexual longing and an explosive hedonism. By portraying forms with expressive and at times exaggerated gestures, I hope to reflect characters on the brink of an overwhelming sexuality or violence while offering a hint of the hidden pathos of everyday life.