Vincent Valdez

Valdez grew up in San Antonio, and currently resides in Houston. He demonstrated talent for drawing at an early age. As a young muralist, he began exploring imagery that pertained to social/political statements. Vincent received a full scholarship to The Rhode Island School of Design where he earned his BFA in 2000.

In 2004 at age 26, Valdez’s suite of monumental charcoal drawings, Stations, was shown at the McNay Museum in Texas. He was the youngest artist to have a solo exhibition at the McNay. Since then he has exhibited widely, and his works are in the permanent collections of museums throughout the United States, Europe, and South America.

The print "Suspect: Dark Clothes, Hair, Eyes, Skin" was inspired by an incident in Brooklyn. It was done in memory of a young latino male who was gunned down by several off-duty officers in Brooklyn. He was stopped for no reason while walking on the sidewalk and as he reached into his pocket for his I.D., he was shot 42 times and killed. The pose of the figure comes from St. Sebastian = a religious martyr, persecuted for his religious beliefs. Bullet holes replace the arrows which were shot into Sebastian.

"It is a dangerous time and a dangerous place to have dark clothes, dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin." Vincent Valdez.