v i n c e n t v a l d e z

Study for John, 18 × 24 inches RequiemStudy ,for 42 John× 93, inches18 × 24 inches

America’s Finest, 42 x 34 inches each

America’s Finest: Recent Works by Vincent Valdez, fi rst exhibited at McNay Art Museum in 2012, continues a lineage established by the artist in his exhibition Stations eight years ago at that same institution. Harnessing the loaded archetype of a prize- fi ghter as a surrogate for the struggles of the Everyman, Stations (2004) is a dramaturgical reinterpretation of the Stations of the Cross as a suite of large-scale, emotionally charged charcoal -on-paper drawings of an underground boxing match. The series displays proto-typical notions of American hybridity, in this case referencing the Ashcan School (specifi cally the work of George Bellows), Chicano Art, Catholic dogma and classic American literature, for instance, the ambiguous raconteur in Ernest Hemingway’s short story about a fi xed boxing match, “Fifty Grand,” (The Atlantic Monthly, July, 1927). Just as in Hemingway’s cautionary tale, the sequence of events in Valdez’ Stations progresses without a stable narrative position; our view of its unfolding is neither discrete nor omni- scient, yet its tragic outcome seems inevitable. Valdez’ use of allegory continues in RecentWorks, albeit with less insistence on theatricality. Two pendant but discrete series appear in the exhibition—America’s Finest (2011) and Excerpts for John (2012)—and both position Valdez past the precipice of self-awareness that comes with artistic maturity. His approach to fi guration, composition and nuance atmospheric oil paintings, we follow the military funeral of 2nd Lt. John R. differs drastically from that of his early drawings and paintings, evidenced Holt Jr., who survived a tour of duty in Iraq as a combat medic, but lost a in the series America’s Finest by pronounced restraint. He has abandoned battle with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2009. The point of view is the gestural use of charcoal and tableaux vivant in Stations in favor of myopic, fi xed on a fl ag-draped coffi n. A horse-drawn carriage, uniformed Spartan and almost hyperrealistic graphite-on-paper drawings of solitary pallbearers and varied backgrounds (a mixture of shared childhood haunts pugilists against white backgrounds. and a military graveyard) slip into the kind of blurred narrative that can Removed from the macabre spectacle of the boxing ring, with its garish only unfurl in front of watery eyes—a feathered, hallucinatory, Gaussian lights and the contorted expressions of ecstatic spectators, each man’s effect in which fi gures and objects in the periphery dissolve from muted physique, his stance, his wounds and scars and—most tellingly—his eyes shades of grey into the ascetic oblivion of empty white canvas. The paintings, and facial expression, show implacable resolve if not outright defi ance. if viewed in sequence, show a coffi n carried out of a cemetery and through Each is styled as a man of different ethnicity, a notion reinforced by the streets until it reaches its fi nal resting place in front of a humble home. sym-bolic appurtenances (a Star of David, the skin of a black panther, a This reversal—this poetic yet hope-lessly futile re-sequencing of reality by tattered Native American headdress). Yet all manifest the same archetype: the artist—is the most powerful gesturein the exhibition, echoed in the video the anti-hero, the underdog and, like the protagonist in Stations, the Home, projected on an adjacent wall. forgotten. Valdez does not attempt to nullify the moral ambiguity of the Valdez’s subtle rumination on absence and loss acts as foil to a large-scale prizefi ghter; instead, he lifts him up off of back alley stoops, out of crass portrait of Holt. Dressed in combat fatigues against a sky fi lled with the underground arenas and acknowledges his struggle by rescuing the anti- thick smoke of battle, one’s gaze inevitably spirals into the eyes—aggregates hero from anonymity. Here is our American Everyman, eulogized. of terror and acquiescence. We have seen this expression before; it extends While the prizefi ghter stands in for man’s moral and/or philosophical from the advent of combat photography to the faces of anonymous boys plight in modern society, a different kind of proxy emerges in Excerpts milling about in airports waiting for connecting fl ights home. Knowing that for John. Several works function as transitional devices between the two this man—this universal soldier—is past the point of emotional surrender, series, including a meticulously rendered and monumentally scaled we could again look for precedent in the moral constructs proposed by the graphite drawing of a bald eagle contorted in the throes of death skewed logic of Hemingway. In an era in which military suicides have (Requiem, 2012), and a richly-layered wax crayon drawing of a folded surpassed combat deaths, however, literary abstractions of suffering and American fl ag (Untitled, 2012). These images are harbingers of the disillusionment offer scant solace. The bout is fi xed and the battle personal drama unraveling in the adjacent gallery. unwinnable, yet the fi ght goes on. Valdez again displays restraint, especially when one considers that the impetus for this series was the death of a childhood friend. In a suite of six Anjali Gupta, 2013

cover and opposite page, Untitled, 14 × 16 inches

In Memory, 42 × 93 inches Excerpts for John, 24 × 36 inches each

John, 42 × 93 inches

Home, DVD, 9 minutes v i n c e n t v a l d e z (b. 1977, , TX)

solo & two-person exhibitions 2013 THE STRANGEST FRUIT, Bell Gallery at Brown University, Providence, RI; David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX 2012-2013 America’s Finest: Recent Works by Vincent Valdez, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX 2011 America’s Finest, Contemporary, David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX 2010 Flashback, Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX Stations, Mesa Contemporary Arts Center, Mesa, AZ 2009 Burn, Federal Art Projects, Los Angeles, CA Ry Cooder / Vincent Valdez: El Chavez Ravine, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX 2008 Without End, Gallery at UTA, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 2007 Pride of the Southside, Museo Alameda, San Antonio, TX; O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX Winner’s Circle, Western Project, Los Angeles, CA 2005-2006 Stations (traveling)Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX; Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePaul University, Greencastle, IN; The Islander Art Gallery, Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, TX 2005 54th Annual Artist of the Year Exhibition, San Antonio Art League Museum, San Antonio, TX 2004 Stations, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX 2003 New Worx, Art Miami, Miami, FL Drawn From Memory and Reality: Valdez & Ramos, Joan Grona Gallery, San Antonio, TX 2002 Made Men, Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio, TX 2 TO WATCH: Vincent Valdez & Oscar Casares, Artpace San Antonio & Gemini Ink, San Antonio, TX Mix! Series: Vincent Valdez, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX 1999 Recuerdo, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, TX

selected group exhibitions 2013 Legend Tripping, Masters & Pelavin, New York, NY Changing Perceptions of the Western Landscape, The Albuquerque Museum of Art, Albuquerque, NM 2012 Prelude, David Shelton Gallery, Houston, TX Pride, Protest & Plains, Red Arrow Contemporary, Dallas, TX ICONS: RISD, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Represent LA, Vincent Price Art Museum at East LA College, Los Angeles, CA 2011 Silver: 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Gallery at UTA, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX Arte Tejano: de Campos, Barrios y Fronteras, Fundacion Osde, Buenos Aires, Brazil Muertes, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL Works on Paper, David Shelton Gallery, San Antonio, TX 2010 Roadshow: Houston, David Shelton Gallery at Inman Annex, Houston, TX Foretopia, David Shelton Gallery, San Antonio, TX 2010 El Grito: The Cry for Independence, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AK 2009 Western Project: The First Six Years, Western Project, Los Angeles, CA Albuquerque—Los Angeles Exchange, 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM and LA Art Core, Los Angeles, CA 2008 Angelenos: Painters of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA American Realism, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN In The Land Of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapose Factor, Laguna Art Museum, Orange County, CA Beyond the Border, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL 2007 La Vida Lowrider: Cruising in the City Of Angels, Petersen Automotive Museum, Los Angeles, CA The Siren’s Song: Contemporary Narrative Painting, Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin, TX 2006 Swallow Harder, Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA Drawing Conclusions on the Wall, Chapman University, Orange County, CA 2005 Latitud, Te Whare Whananga O Awanuiarangi, Whakatane, New Zealand 2004 A Timeless Montage of Conflict and Being, Parsons New School of Design, Paris, France From The Collection of Joe A. Diaz (traveling)Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; The National Hispanic Research Center, Albuquerque, NM; San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA; National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL 2003 Likeness and Presence, Self Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA Treinta: 30 Years of Chicano Printmaking and Justice, Self Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA 2002 Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge, from the Collection of Cheech Marin, (traveling) The San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX; National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL; Weisman Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; Smithsonian Museum, Art and Industries Building, Washington, DC; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - La Jolla, La Jolla, CA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; The O’Kane Gallery, University of Houston, Houston, TX Contemporary Drawing in Texas, Marion Koogler McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX 17th Annual New American Talent, Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX El Grupo Tejano, Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN Contemporary Figurative Works on Paper, Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, TX The Power of Place, Finesilver Gallery, San Antonio, TX Traces of Culture: Young Latino Artists, Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX residencies awards 2014 Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany 2006 Artist Foundation Grant, San Antonio, TX 2011 The Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT 2005 Artpace Travel Grant, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 2005 The Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME th Skowhegan, ME 54 Annual Artists of the Year, San Antonio Art League, 2003 SALA: SA Meets LA Exchange, Self Help Graphics, San Antonio, TX Los Angeles, CA 2002 Best of Show (Traces of Culture: Young Latino Artists) Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX 2001 Primer Paso Artist-in-Residence Grant, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, TX Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men, that come with the dust and are gone with the wind. –Bob Dylan, Song to Woody, 1962

FOR JOHN 1978-2010 Untitled, 2012 lithographic crayon on folded canvas 14 × 16 inches Collection of the artist

Requiem, 2012 graphite on paper 42 × 93 inches Collection of the artist

America’s Finest, 2011 graphite on paper suite of six drawings, 34 × 42 inches each Collection of Marita Bell Fairbanks, Houston

In Memory, 2012 Adriana Corral & Vincent Valdez acetone, cotton and paper on gessoed wood 42 × 93 inches Collection of the artists

Excerpts for John, 2012 oil on canvas suite of six drawings, 24 × 36 inches each Collection of the artist

John, 2010 – 2012 oil on canvas 42 × 93 inches 3909 Main St. Collection of the artist Houston, TX 77002 832-538-0924 Home, 2012 www.davidsheltongallery.com DVD, 9 minutes, color www.vincentvaldezofficialsite.com Collection of the artist Directed by Vincent Valdez ©2013. David Shelton Gallery. All rights reserved. No part Videography by Jim Mendiola of this publication may be reproduced in amy form without Edited by Faith Radle written permission. Study for John, 200 Photography by Justin Parr. Images courtesy of ink and colored pencil on paper the artist and David Shelton Gallery. 18 × 24 inches Catalog design by Devi Norton. Collection of the artist