Houston-based independent artist Vincent Valdez joined the Department of Art History yesterday to deliver an inspiring public lecture to the community in connection with the fall course, HART 265: Art and Politics in Modern Latin America, co-taught by Prof. Fabiola López-Durán and Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Valdez discussed his various subjects and works over the past twenty five years starting with murals painted throughout the city of San Antonio when he was just 9 years old to the period when he was transplanted to the Rhode Island School of Design far away from his southern roots and family where he learned to transition from house paint to oil with one of his first major successes during his senior year in “Kill the Pachuco Bastard!,” an artwork inspired by the historical events of the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots. Valdez stressed the importance of developing artwork that creates and generates critical thought for both himself and his viewers and followed through with a series of large-scale charcoal drawings depicting boxing as a metaphor for the rite of passage and boys' struggles to grow into manhood using themes from the Stations of the Cross as inspiration.
One of his more recent series that has been displayed at the MFAH Kinder Building, “The Strangest Fruit,” realistically depicts people known by Valdez within an historical subject—the lynching of Latinos in Texas and the United States to metaphorically illustrate the persecution and oppression felt by contemporary Latinos in the country.
Vincent Valdez is recognized for his monumental portrayal of the contemporary figure. His drawn and painted subjects remark on a universal struggle within various socio-political arenas and eras. Valdez was born in 1977 in San Antonio, Texas. He received a full scholarship to study at the Rhode Island School of Design, & earned his BFA in 2000.
Images: “The Strangest Fruit,” “Yo Soy Blaxican,” “Stations #8: Take him!,” “The Beginning is Near, An American Trilogy Ch. 1: The City,” “People of the Sun (Grandma and Grandpa Santana)”
