Julio Valdez

Julio Valdez is a painter, printmaker, teacher and mixed-media installation artist. He was part of the official representation of the Dominican Republic at the 58th Venice Biennale in Italy in 2019. Valdez has presented 30 institutional and gallery solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, and has participated in more than 100 group exhibitions, biennials and related educational programs in the visual arts.

Among his numerous awards, he received the Artist-in-Residence Fellowship at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City in 1997-98 and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for printmaking in 2003. Since 2004 he has been teaching Non-toxic printmaking workshops internationally.

His most recent solo show was presented at June Kelly Gallery, New York, from November 2019 – January 15, 2020. A new museum exhibition is scheduled for May 2022 at the Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States (OAS), Washington, DC.

My recent work reflects my interest in creating a spatial uncertainty, a sense of time not yet defined. I continue to explore ways of including my personal experiences and memories in my paintings. The events of the recent year going through the Covid-19 pandemic, has inspired the new ongoing series of Pandemic Portraits. I am using inks, acrylics and oils. I grew up in the Caribbean, where the surrounding waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea create a unique sense of light and space. My paintings explore this oceanic landscape that is both illusory and dreamlike. I have been examining images of water beyond its physical characteristics, as a metaphor for consciousness and the creative process.

For over three decades, my work has focused on the geographical and political circumstances that have defined the Caribbean region. I explore cultural identity from both historical and formal perspectives. Historically, the old and new worlds encountered each other in the Caribbean. This is the territory where everything started, where the first slave ship came, where the first knee was laid on the neck of another human being who was left unable to breathe.

In my water paintings, I use the "all over technique," which is rooted in abstract expressionism, to call the attention of the viewer to the entire visual field. I do this to convey a sense of being immersed in the expansiveness of the ocean. In addition, I focus on visual aspects (transparency, color saturation, luminosity, forms, etc.), and combine them in such a way that the separation of form and content become inseparable. This results in a spatial uncertainty, where sense of time and perspective is not defined, reflecting the Caribbean culture where time unfolds irregularly and resists being captured by the clock and the calendar.

These works have been inspired by diverse places such as the Reserva de la Biosfera Ria Celestún, a large coastal wetland reserve and wildlife refuge in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Other places that have inspired my visual explorations in these paintings are Las Terrenas and Cayo Arenas, both in the Dominican Republic. These places allow me to experience a communion with nature and its cycles, which I have found are an inviting entry >point to my own inner explorations.

Born Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.

Lives and works in Washington DC and New York City

 

Education

1994-95           Printmaking with Robert Blackburn and Kathy Caraccio, New York

1986-88           Fine Arts/Illustration, Altos de Chav?n School of Design, La Romana

                        Dominican Republic, affiliated with Parsons School of Design, New York

1984-86           National School of Fine Arts, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

 

Solo Exhibition

2021               Water Paintings, David Richard Gallery

2019               Water Abstractions, June Kelly Gallery, New York

2017               Julio Valdez: Recent Works, Inter-American Development Bank,   Washington, DC

                       Dreams & Reflections, June Kelly Gallery, New York

2016               Dreams & Reflections, Latin American Masters, Santa Monica, CA

                       The Blue Planet, Reeves-Reed Arboretum, Summit, NJ

2015               Julio Valdez & Irene Carlos, Galería Ana Lucia Gomez, Guatemala, Central America

2014               Para Soñar el Sol (In Order to Dream the Sun): New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York

2013               Julio Valdez: Recent Paintings, Latin American Masters, Santa Monica, CA

2012-2013      Nature: Prints, Drawings and Mixed Media, curated by Graciela Kartofel, The Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT; catalog

2012                Nature: Prints, Drawings and Mixed Media, curated by Graciela Kartofel, The Arsenal Gallery, The Arsenal in Central Park, New York; catalog

                        Julio Valdez: Selected Work, King Street Gallery, Montgomery College, MD

2010                In the Same Path as the Sun: New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York

                        New Water Paintings, Latin American Masters, Santa Monica, CA

2009                El Mar de los Delirios, Galeria Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico; brochure

2008                Julio Valdez: Obra Recientes, Legacy Fine Arts, Panama City, Panama

2007                Water Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York

                        Julio Valdez: Water Paintings, Latin American Masters, Beverly Hills, CA

2005                Julio Valdez: Recent Works, Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA

2004                Between Shock and Tenderness, Galeria Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico; brochure

2003                Julio Valdez: Selected Works, Latin American Masters, Beverly Hills, CA

                        The Island and the Continent, The Art Museum of the America Organization of American States, Washington, DC; brochure

                        Recent Works, Solar Latin American Art and Design, East Hampton, NY

2002                Echando Raíces, Galeria Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2001                Julio Valdez: Obras Recientes, Legacy Fine Art, Panama City, Panama

                        Julio Valdez: Los Sacrificios Fecundos, Fundacion Centro Cultural, Altos de Chav?n Gallery, La Romana, Dominican Republic; catalogue

2000                Julio Valdez: Recent Paintings, Latin American Masters, Beverly Hills, CA

                        Obras Recientes de Julio Valdez, Galería Botello, San Juan, Puerto Rico

1999                Root of Dreams, Museo de las Casas Reales, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; catalogue

                        Works on Paper, Maison des Arts et de la Culture, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Quebec, Canada

1998                Julio Valdez: Transpositions, Toomey-Tourell Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA

           Transpositions, Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; catalogue

1997                Transpositions, Museo de las Americas, San Juan, Puerto Rico; catalogue                

1995                Cantos: Recent Works 1989-1995, Voluntariado de las Casas Reales, Santo Domingo Dominican Republic

1995                Cantos: Recent Works 1989-1995, Center for the Arts and Culture, Santiago, Dominican Republic

1993                 La Era del Mito, Galeria San Juan Bautista, Casa Alcaldia, San Juan, Puerto Rico

1992                Julio Valdez: Recent Works, Galeria Plastica Contemporanea, Guatemala, Central America

1991                Habitos del Tiempo, Voluntariado de las Casas Reales, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; brochure                           

1989                Aire Fresco, Institute of Hispanic Culture, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

 

Selected Group Exhibitions   

 

2021                Inside Outside, Upside Down, The Phillips Collection, Washington DC

2020                USPS traveling exhibition, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY

2019                58th Venice Biennale, Pavillion of The Dominican Republic – Venice,  Italy

                       Summertime, Faction Art Projects, Harlem, New York

                       Affordable Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York

                       Art on Paper Fair, Pier 36, New York

2017               Celebrating 30 Years, Gallery Artists: Drawing and Photography, June  Kelly Gallery, New York

2016               Monoprint Invitational Exhibition, Woodstock School of Art, NY

2014 - 15        Modern and Contemporary Dominican Art: Works From The Collection

                       Of The General Directorate Of Customs, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC, traveled to United Nations, New York; 

                             Instituto Cervantes, Madrid, Spain; Eugenio Granell Foundation, Santiago de Compostela, Spain                                                                          

2014               Paper Trail, New Works on Paper, Latin American Masters, Santa Monica, CA

2013               International Drawing Biennial, Palace of Fine Arts, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

2012               The Big Picture: A Photography Exhibition in Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the IDB Cultural Center, Dulles International Airport, Dulles, VA

2011                Emerging Artists from Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by the World Bank Art Program, Washington, DC. 

                               The exhibition is being shown on a rotating basis among the World Bank offices in Washington and Paris, as well as

                               at the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC

2010                International Triennial of the Caribbean, Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

2009                Creative Dialogues: Latin American Printmakers, Center for Contemporary      Printmaking, Norwalk, CT

2008                Silk Aquatint: Painterly Graphics, Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York

2007                Art of Collecting, Flint Institute of Arts, MI  

                        ReGrouping: Three Generations of Latin American Artists in New York,  Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, New York

2006                ¡Merengue! Visual Rythms, El Museo del Barrio, New York

                       This Skin I’m In: Contemporary Dominican Art from El Museo del Barrio’s  Permanent Collection, New York 

                        Transplant/Transculture, Wave Hill Glyndor Gallery, Riverdale, New York

                        Silk Aquatint: Painterly Graphics, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT

2005                My Island, My Home, The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook, Long Island, NY

2004                Silk Aquatint: Painterly Graphics, State Department, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico; traveling exhibition

2003                La Joven Estampa, Latin American Print Biennial, Casa de las Americas, La Habana, Cuba

                        International Print Bienal, Varna, Bulgaria

                        Gráfica, Solar Latin American Art and Design, East Hampton, NY

                        The Solarplate Revolution, organized by Dan Welden, Whitney Art Works, Greenport, NY

2002                 XIX E. Le?n Jiménes Biennial, Santiago, Dominican Republic

2001                Obra Gráfica, Saludo a la XIII Bienal de San Juan, Galeria Botello, Puerto Ric

                        XII Bienal Iberoamericana de Arte, Instituto Cultural Domecq, Ciudad de México

1999                XXX ème Festival International de la Peinture, Musée Grimaldi, Château-Musée, Cagnes-Sur-Mer, France, traveled to Caraibes, Europe, Japan and Maro

                        Mitos en El Caribe, Exposicion y Simposio, Casa de Las Americas, La Habana, Cuba

                        XII Bienal Iberoamericana de Arte, Instituto Cultural Domecq, Ciudad de Mexico

                        1^st Argentinian Biennial of Latin American Prints, Buenos Aires, Argentina