Julio Valdez is an inventive painter and printmaker whose artwork is informed by working in both media. Included in this exhibition are two different types of work that demonstrate his keen ability to conjure symbols from the Caribbean. His layered imagery responds to shifting cultural and social influences. The fusion of man and nature, a frequent theme in his work is exemplified in Forest Cry/Llanto Forestal. A dense mangrove swamp swallows a mythical figure whose head emerges from the underwater zone at the bottom of the canvas. Brother and Platanos is an example of Valdez’s approach to layered images that hints at portraiture. Symbolically, the image is composed of thousands of bunches of plantanos (plantains) that darken to form the outline of a face. The image refers to the importance of this essential staple food, and is a vehicle for the artist to confront the derogatory associations that the word can carry when used to refer to Dominican or Puerto Rican immigrants.

Julio Valdez studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo and graduated from Altos de Chavon School of Design in the Dominican Republic. He relocated to New York in 1993, and then he studied printmaking with Robert Blackburn and Kathy Caraccio. His paintings and prints have been exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at the Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, LA; Galeria Botello, San Juan, PR; Latin American Masters, Beverly Hills, CA; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC. His work part of In This Skin I am In: Contemporary Dominican Art for the Permanent Collection of El Museo del Barrio this fall. He received fellowships for the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2003, and was an Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1997-98. He teaches silk aquatint, solar plate, and monotype printmaking classes from his East Harlem studio, and will be leading a mono-printing workshop Culturally Printing at Wave Hill on November 19.
www.juliovaldez.com