Vincent Valdez's guest appearances

Vincent Valdez

The Embers Podcast

Austin Art Talk

Pandemic Oral History Project

Art Sense

Randal Ford

Michael Anthony

Debbie Millman

Hayley Gillespie

Marilyn Minter

Sarah Morris

Kim Jones

Noah Charney

Natalia Sylvester

Lita Albuquerque

Dario Robleto

Eric Fischl

Ben Davis

Fred Eversley

Mark Bradford

OwlTail

00:57 - A conversation with artist Vincent Valdez. Valdez produces beautiful large scale paintings that tackle issues of justice and equality. His work has been either exhibited or collected by some of the nation’s top institutions, including LACMA, Mass MoCA, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and The National Portrait Gallery.53:06 - The week’s top art headlines.

00:57 - A conversation with artist Vincent Valdez. Valdez produces beautiful large scale paintings that tackle issues of justice and equality. His work has been either exhibited or collected by some of the nation’s top institutions, including LACMA, Mass MoCA, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and The National Portrait Gallery. 53:06 - The week’s top art headlines.

Ep. 11: Artist Vincent Valdez

An interview with Vincent Valdez conducted 2020 August 13, by Fernanda Espinosa, for the Archives of American Art's Pandemic Oral History Project at Valdez's studio in New Haven, Connecticut. To read the full transcript, go to http://s.si.edu/Valdez_POHT;​ to learn more about the Pandemic Oral History project, visit http://s.si.edu/pandemic​ This interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.

An interview with Vincent Valdez conducted 2020 August 13, by Fernanda Espinosa, for the Archives of American Art's Pandemic Oral History Project at Valdez's studio in New Haven, Connecticut. To read the full transcript, go to <a href="http://s.si.edu/Valdez_POHT;​" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://s.si.edu/Valdez_POHT;​</a> to learn more about the Pandemic Oral History project, visit <a href="http://s.si.edu/pandemic​" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://s.si.edu/pandemic​</a> This interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.

Interview with Vincent Valdez

"These images like murals are images that can speak to people and that people can identify with. You don’t have to be from a certain background or certain city or community or ethnicity or political belief or religious belief. These are my visual memorials to the epic and endless struggle of the human experience."  From Vincent Valdez’s point of view we have a choice as to which way we want to go as a country. We can start again. It could be the beginning of a darker chapter in our history or a more enlightened and inclusive one. And art can sometimes be that guide to help tell us who we are, what we are made off, and where we can go from here. One of his biggest fears is that we are not learning from history, some of which is seemingly lost, and some of it ignored or manipulated to favor one group over another. Vincent has never wanted to be anything other than an artist and he vowed and pledged an oath to himself and his work right from the beginning. Never would he sway from what he felt in his heart that it was most important to say, no matter the consequences. He has stayed true to his vision for almost two decades and has used his struggles in life and in the studio as fuel to propel him forward.  His integrity, clarity, and work ethic come from his parents and family who are the common people that have helped to build their communities and America while enduring discrimination and the systemic limitations built into our society that do not favor people of color. At the very beginning of his life as a small helpless baby in an incubator Vincent was holding on for life, but his grandmother saw then what is obvious now to the rest of us. He has something to say and he has the ability, the determination, and the courage to say it in his own visual way. As he developed his skills, discipline, and interest in art growing up, he really found his calling when he started to paint murals with his mentor Alex Rubio.  That was his first real education about people, life, and how the world works. He vowed to never loose sight of or touch with the community that he was learning to portray and give a presence and a voice to in those murals. We see now in his works the truths and realties of life’s struggles and a mirror of ourselves and the human experience that we night not always recognize on our own or want to look at. Potential moments of truth and something greater than just one person or one artist. In his studio Vincent feels the most freedom in his life and the main limitation is having the time to manifest all of his ideas. Beyond painting and drawing he feels he is just a novice so there is much to learn. The work is an outlet to try to make sense of the world outside of the studio and success is simply having the ability to do what he wants to do. Be an artist and keep reinventing himself and keep exploring how to see and show things differently, or as they really are. When he has an intense feeling and idea for new work his biggest challenge is how to then translate that into a painting or drawing that will potentially give the viewer of that work a similar feeling.  Vincent and I met in 2011 at The Serie Project thanks to the amazing Sam Coronado. Over the years our paths have crossed again but with the excitement around the inclusion of his paintings The City I &amp; II at the Blanton Museum of Art, I knew the time was right for an interview. And what a great interview it is, not because of anything I did, but because of Vincent’s humble, generous, and wise perspectives on life, being an artist, and staying true to your ideals. Please enjoy and if this episode or any other I've produced have helped or added value to your life please consider supporting the podcast so it can continue and grow. Thanks!Some of the subjects we discuss: Sam Coronado The Strangest Fruit Defining moments Visiting The Alamo Painting murals/community Getting held up at gun point Facing tough issues/truths Amnesia/looking in the mirror Influential artists Struggles/oath to work Capturing a feeling Challenges/bodily limits  Source of integrity/parents Voices of the people The Beginning is Near Critical thinking The role of Art Travel outside US Origin story/childhood What is success? Doing the work Skill level/types of work Fortunate enough  Teaching/corazón Adriana Corral Requiem sculpture CollaborationVincent in his studio with a painting of his grandparents. Current Local Exhibitions  Vincent Valdez: The City The Beginning is Near (Part I) CLOSES →October 28, 2018 On view at The Blanton Museum of Art The University of Texas at Austin 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Austin, TX 78712 512-471-5482 info@blantonmuseum.org Here's a link to the museum website dedicated to a discussion of The City. http://blantonmuseum.org/valdethecity Also on view in the permanent collection of the Blanton are two of Vincent's paintings from The Strangest Fruit series. They are right across from two prints by previous podcast guest Deborah Roberts. The photo below was taken by me on 9/29/13, the day he finished the series at his former firehouse studio in San Antonio, right before they came crate them up.    Vincent Valdez: Dream Baby Dream The Beginning is Near (Part II) Fri, Sep 7, 2018 → Sat, Nov 10, 2018 David Shelton Gallery 4411 Montrose Blvd., Suite B Houston, Texas 77006 713 393-7319 info@davidsheltongallery.com  The lights are on. The mics are live. The cameras are rolling, yet no one is sure where to begin. Gestural brushwork composes the scene. Moments of pause. Speakers at podiums, flanked by microphones and floral arrangements. Each is silent. Some mournful. Some pensive. Others meditative or distant. Collectively uncertain of where we go from here. Dream Baby Dream (2017–2018) is Part II of Vincent Valdez’s allegorical trilogy The Beginning Is Near. The series follows on from Part I (2015–2016), two large oil paintings, The City I and The City II, that address the structural oppression, hate and violence Valdez sees as inscribed into the sociocultural landscape of the United States. As he completed the final canvas of The City I, news broke of the death of Muhammad Ali (June 3, 2016). A week later, between bouts of painting, Valdez watched television coverage of people following the hearse carrying Ali’s body, the funeral service and the eulogies honoring “The Greatest.” The diversity of the speakers and the compassion and conviction of their words resonated with Valdez, but months later, during the culmination of the 2016 presidential campaign, he found new meaning in the spectacle surrounding Ali’s death. Returning to the footage, Valdez sought to reconcile Ali’s life and legacy with the dawning apprehension, anxiety, division and disillusionment that echoed across the country from screen to shining screen. From an essay by Ian Alden Russell, August, 2018Banner Image - Dream Baby Dream (7), 2018 oil on paper 42 x 72 inches Photo: Peter MollickThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Intro music generously provided by Stan Killian Support this podcast.Links:Vincent Valdez - websiteVincent Valdez | David Shelton GalleryAustin's Blanton Museum of Art - Vincent Valdez: The CityFacing Racism: Art &amp; Action Symposium – Blanton Museum of ArtThe Serie Project | A non-profit organization promoting fine art serigraphySerie Special Edition 2014 Artist in Residence - Vincent ValdezVincent Valdez, the People’s Champion – Texas MonthlyThings to Do: View Vincent Valdez's "Dream Baby Dream" at David Shelton Gallery | Houston PressWhy I became a honorary member of the Ku Klux Klan, and what I did with the membership card | Watchdog | Dallas NewsVincent Valdez - WikipediaSam Coronado | Coronado StudioADRIANA CORRAL - websiteGeorge Bellows - websitePaul Cadmus - WikipediaOtto Dix - websiteKäthe Kollwitz - WikipediaPaula Rego - WikipediaLucian Freud - WikipediaPeter Saul - WikipediaLeon Golub - WikipediaJoan Mitchell FoundationValdez_01 — SAVEDx

"These images like murals are images that can speak to people and that people can identify with. You don’t have to be from a certain background or certain city or community or ethnicity or political belief or religious belief. These are my visual memorials to the epic and endless struggle of the human experience." From Vincent Valdez’s point of view we have a choice as to which way we want to go as a country. We can start again. It could be the beginning of a darker chapter in our history or a more enlightened and inclusive one. And art can sometimes be that guide to help tell us who we are, what we are made off, and where we can go from here. One of his biggest fears is that we are not learning from history, some of which is seemingly lost, and some of it ignored or manipulated to favor one group over another. Vincent has never wanted to be anything other than an artist and he vowed and pledged an oath to himself and his work right from the beginning. Never would he sway from what he felt in his heart that it was most important to say, no matter the consequences. He has stayed true to his vision for almost two decades and has used his struggles in life and in the studio as fuel to propel him forward. His integrity, clarity, and work ethic come from his parents and family who are the common people that have helped to build their communities and America while enduring discrimination and the systemic limitations built into our society that do not favor people of color. At the very beginning of his life as a small helpless baby in an incubator Vincent was holding on for life, but his grandmother saw then what is obvious now to the rest of us. He has something to say and he has the ability, the determination, and the courage to say it in his own visual way. As he developed his skills, discipline, and interest in art growing up, he really found his calling when he started to paint murals with his mentor Alex Rubio. That was his first real education about people, life, and how the world works. He vowed to never loose sight of or touch with the community that he was learning to portray and give a presence and a voice to in those murals. We see now in his works the truths and realties of life’s struggles and a mirror of ourselves and the human experience that we night not always recognize on our own or want to look at. Potential moments of truth and something greater than just one person or one artist. In his studio Vincent feels the most freedom in his life and the main limitation is having the time to manifest all of his ideas. Beyond painting and drawing he feels he is just a novice so there is much to learn. The work is an outlet to try to make sense of the world outside of the studio and success is simply having the ability to do what he wants to do. Be an artist and keep reinventing himself and keep exploring how to see and show things differently, or as they really are. When he has an intense feeling and idea for new work his biggest challenge is how to then translate that into a painting or drawing that will potentially give the viewer of that work a similar feeling. Vincent and I met in 2011 at The Serie Project thanks to the amazing Sam Coronado. Over the years our paths have crossed again but with the excitement around the inclusion of his paintings The City I &amp; II at the Blanton Museum of Art, I knew the time was right for an interview. And what a great interview it is, not because of anything I did, but because of Vincent’s humble, generous, and wise perspectives on life, being an artist, and staying true to your ideals. Please enjoy and if this episode or any other I've produced have helped or added value to your life please consider <a href="http://www.austinarttalk.com/supportpodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">supporting the podcast</a> so it can continue and grow. Thanks! Some of the subjects we discuss: Sam Coronado The Strangest Fruit Defining moments Visiting The Alamo Painting murals/community Getting held up at gun point Facing tough issues/truths Amnesia/looking in the mirror Influential artists Struggles/oath to work Capturing a feeling Challenges/bodily limits Source of integrity/parents Voices of the people The Beginning is Near Critical thinking The role of Art Travel outside US Origin story/childhood What is success? Doing the work Skill level/types of work Fortunate enough Teaching/corazón Adriana Corral Requiem sculpture Collaboration Vincent in his studio with a painting of his grandparents. <h3>Current Local Exhibitions</h3> Vincent Valdez: The City The Beginning is Near (Part I) CLOSES →October 28, 2018 On view at <a href="https://blantonmuseum.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Blanton Museum of Art</a> The University of Texas at Austin 200 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Austin, TX 78712 512-471-5482 <a href="mailto:info@blantonmuseum.org" rel="nofollow">info@blantonmuseum.org</a> Here's a link to the museum website dedicated to a discussion of The City. <a href="http://blantonmuseum.org/valdethecity" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://blantonmuseum.org/valdethecity</a> Also on view in the permanent collection of the Blanton are two of Vincent's paintings from <a href="https://vincentvaldezstudio.com/the-strangest-fruit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Strangest Fruit </a>series. They are right across from two prints by previous podcast guest <a href="http://www.austinarttalk.com/19" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Deborah Roberts</a>. The photo below was taken by me on 9/29/13, the day he finished the series at his former firehouse studio in San Antonio, right before they came crate them up. Vincent Valdez: Dream Baby Dream The Beginning is Near (Part II) Fri, Sep 7, 2018 → Sat, Nov 10, 2018 <a href="http://davidsheltongallery.com/exhibitions/detail/vincent_valdez_dream_baby_dream_sep_2018" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">David Shelton Gallery</a> 4411 Montrose Blvd., Suite B Houston, Texas 77006 713 393-7319 <a href="mailto:info@davidsheltongallery.com" rel="nofollow">info@davidsheltongallery.com</a> The lights are on. The mics are live. The cameras are rolling, yet no one is sure where to begin. Gestural brushwork composes the scene. Moments of pause. Speakers at podiums, flanked by microphones and floral arrangements. Each is silent. Some mournful. Some pensive. Others meditative or distant. Collectively uncertain of where we go from here. Dream Baby Dream (2017–2018) is Part II of Vincent Valdez’s allegorical trilogy The Beginning Is Near. The series follows on from Part I (2015–2016), two large oil paintings, The City I and The City II, that address the structural oppression, hate and violence Valdez sees as inscribed into the sociocultural landscape of the United States. As he completed the final canvas of The City I, news broke of the death of Muhammad Ali (June 3, 2016). A week later, between bouts of painting, Valdez watched television coverage of people following the hearse carrying Ali’s body, the funeral service and the eulogies honoring “The Greatest.” The diversity of the speakers and the compassion and conviction of their words resonated with Valdez, but months later, during the culmination of the 2016 presidential campaign, he found new meaning in the spectacle surrounding Ali’s death. Returning to the footage, Valdez sought to reconcile Ali’s life and legacy with the dawning apprehension, anxiety, division and disillusionment that echoed across the country from screen to shining screen. From an essay by Ian Alden Russell, August, 2018 Banner Image - Dream Baby Dream (7), 2018 oil on paper 42 x 72 inches Photo: Peter Mollick This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Intro music generously provided by <a href="http://stankillian.com/main/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stan Killian</a> <a href="http://www.austinarttalk.com/supportpodcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Support this podcast.</a>Links:<ul><li><a href="https://vincentvaldezstudio.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vincent Valdez - website</a></li><li><a href="http://davidsheltongallery.com/artists/detail/vincent_valdez" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vincent Valdez | David Shelton Gallery</a></li><li><a href="http://blantonmuseum.org/chapter/about-the-art/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Austin's Blanton Museum of Art - Vincent Valdez: The City</a></li><li><a href="https://blantonmuseum.org/chapter/facing-racism-art-and-action-symposium/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facing Racism: Art &amp; Action Symposium – Blanton Museum of Art</a></li><li><a href="http://serieproject.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Serie Project | A non-profit organization promoting fine art serigraphy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swWJ5G_ZpTw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Serie Special Edition 2014 Artist in Residence - Vincent Valdez</a></li><li><a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/vincent-valdez-the-peoples-champion/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vincent Valdez, the People’s Champion – Texas Monthly</a></li><li><a href="https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/things-to-do-view-vincent-valdezs-dream-baby-dream-at-david-shelton-gallery-10821653" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Things to Do: View Vincent Valdez's "Dream Baby Dream" at David Shelton Gallery | Houston Press</a></li><li><a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2018/09/13/became-honorary-member-ku-klux-klan-membership-card" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Why I became a honorary member of the Ku Klux Klan, and what I did with the membership card | Watchdog | Dallas News</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Valdez" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vincent Valdez - Wikipedia</a></li><li><a href="http://coronadostudio.com/studio/meet-sam" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sam Coronado | Coronado Studio</a></li><li><a href="https://www.adrianacorral.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ADRIANA CORRAL - website</a></li><li><a href="http://www.georgebellows.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">George Bellows - website</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cadmus" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paul Cadmus - Wikipedia</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ottodix.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Otto Dix - website</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A4the_Kollwitz" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Käthe Kollwitz - Wikipedia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Rego" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Paula Rego - Wikipedia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Freud" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lucian Freud - Wikipedia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Saul" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Peter Saul - Wikipedia</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Golub" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leon Golub - Wikipedia</a></li><li><a href="http://joanmitchellfoundation.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Joan Mitchell Foundation</a></li><li><a href="https://savedby.co/within-limits/valdez01" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Valdez_01 — SAVEDx</a></li></ul>

Episode 43: Vincent Valdez - The Beginning is Near

Vincent Valdez is legendary Chicano / American painter from San Antonio, TX. Listen in as we talk about being in Cheech Marin's art collection, the Late Richard Duardo, growing up in San Antonio, apprenticing under Alex Rubio, and his latest painting titled “The City” which depicts the KKK.Follow Vincent on Instagram:@vincentvaldez77

Vincent Valdez is legendary Chicano / American painter from San Antonio, TX. Listen in as we talk about being in Cheech Marin's art collection, the Late Richard Duardo, growing up in San Antonio, apprenticing under Alex Rubio, and his latest painting titled “The City” which depicts the KKK. Follow Vincent on Instagram:@vincentvaldez77