Patssi Valdez

Born in 1951 and raised in East Los Angeles, Patssi Valdez emerged as one of the most significant Chicana artists of her generation. She was the only woman and the only Chicana in the groundbreaking conceptual performance group Asco (Spanish for “nausea”), which challenged dominant narratives through provocative public actions and performances in the 1970s and 1980s. As a founding member, Valdez participated in street-based interventions that often took place in neighborhoods marked by gang conflict or fatal police shootings, using art as a means to confront pressing social and political realities.

Valdez’s creative practice spans a wide range of media, including performance and conceptual art, installations, murals, collage, photography, fashion design, easel painting, and set design. Her versatility reflects both an experimental spirit and a refusal to be confined by traditional categories of artmaking.

Her paintings and mixed-media works are instantly recognizable for their vibrant, saturated colors and topsy-turvy interiors that verge on the theatrical. Heavy curtains frame chaotic rooms where carpets swirl like whirlpools, chairs tip and float, and wine glasses seem to spill mid-motion. The result is a dizzying interplay of fantasy and instability, yet one that maintains a sense of balance between imagination and reality. These dreamlike compositions highlight Valdez’s unique ability to merge the personal, the political, and the magical in a single frame.

As both a pioneering performance artist and a visionary painter, Patssi Valdez has left an enduring mark on Chicano art history and contemporary American art at large. Her work continues to inspire for its fearless energy, unapologetic cultural identity, and imaginative reworking of space, memory, and social commentary.