Description

Vincent Valdez bears witness to the world around him, chronicling America at the margins. Just a Dream... is the artist’s first major museum survey including work from over twenty years across all media. The exhibition is co-organized by MASS MoCA and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). The exhibition addresses American politics today, including topics such as boxing, lynchings of Mexican Americans, border walls, politics, greed, the Ku Klux Klan, and the failings and triumphs of society. Accompanying the show will be a bilingual (English/Spanish) catalogue that will be lushly illustrated and will feature a gatefold and a special sewn-in booklet of behind-the-scenes studio images. Texts include a re-print of Joyce Carol Oates’ On Boxing, essays by exhibition curators Denise Markonish (MASS MoCA) and Patricia Restrepo (CAMH); and writing on the artist’s relationship to Texas by MASS MoCA Curator Evan Garza. This exhibition and publication will cement Valdez as one of the most important American painters working today — imaging his country, its people, politics, pride, and foibles.