Julio Valdez
Bio
Julio Valdez (born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a painter, printmaker, educator, and mixed-media installation artist who lives and works between New York and Washington, DC. His work has been exhibited internationally since 1984. He held his first museum exhibition at the Omar Rayo Museum in Colombia in 1988. Valdez has received numerous awards at the National Biennials of the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo between 1990 and 1998, as well as major international distinctions, including a residency at The Studio Museum in Harlem (1997–1998), the Silver Palette Award at the XXX International Painting Festival in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France (1998), and the Grand Prize at the XVII E. León Jimenes Biennial (2000). In 2003, he received a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and presented a solo exhibition at the Organization of American States in Washington, DC. His work is included in public and private collections worldwide, and he has presented twenty-nine solo exhibitions.
Statement
Julio Valdez’s artistic practice spans painting, printmaking, and installation, integrating traditional and contemporary processes. His work explores themes of identity, memory, and place through an abstract and symbolic visual language in which gesture, texture, and layered surfaces play a central role. With a strong emphasis on process and materiality, Valdez creates complex compositions that engage with personal and collective history, positioning his work within an international contemporary context.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
