FRANCISCO VALVERDE

---

Francisco Valverde (b. 1972) was born and raised in Cuernavaca, Mexico, of a Cuban father and Mexican mother. Early in his career, he was known for his work in contemporary figurative painting. While teaching traditional techniques and large-format painting at Morelense Center for the Arts (Centro Morelense de las Artes), Francisco became inspired by his students’ search for their individual expression, which lead to his own quest for a new artistic practice. 

Francisco began working on large canvases, using bottle dispensers filled with colorful synthetic materials instead of traditional paints and brushes. His goal was to re-create the essential element within drawing and painting: the line. The resulting lines were imperfect and denied the traditional representative characteristic of a line, or what Francisco describes as “righteousness.” These paintings formed a rhythmic structure in which a certain order was realized. This was the start of his new direction. 

Francisco’s current work utilizes plastic materials to build complexity. These paintings utilize powerful lines with direction, suggestive backgrounds, mysterious forms, and varying depths to create a story. Obsession and freedom are two words that Francisco uses to describe his current work: the obsession of daily routine, and the freedom he experimented with as a child drawing and scribbling on a piece of paper for the very first time. He recognizes that perhaps a certain commitment to tradition survives in the 

smooth finishes of his paintings. These paintings also remind the artist of the colorful, shiny candies he used to eat as a child at local fairs. 

Francisco Valverde obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the University Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He has participated in numerous domestic and international solo and group exhibitions, to name some: Rufino Tamayo Biennial, Juan Soriano Museum of Contemporary Art,  Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco, Fort Wayne Museum of Art as well as Art Fairs throughout the USA. In 2016 he was awarded 1st prize in the Rufino Tamayo Biennial and became part of their permanent collection, Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Education Bachelor in Fine Arts, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, USA

Solo Exhibitions 

2020 Hidden Truths, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Forth Wayne, Indiana. USA

2019 (in) organicus, Galerie LeRoyer Montreal, Quebec, Canada

2018 Orden y Caos, NM Arte Contemporaneo, Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico

2018 Material, Julie Zener Gallery, Mill Valley, California. USA

2017 Simulacrum, JLS Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

2015 Francisco Valverde, JLS Gallery, Valle de Bravo, Estado de Mexico, Mexico

2015 Gravita, El Laberinto de los Sentidos Art Gallery, Jardines de Mexico, Jojutla, Morelos, Mexico

2014 Entramados, Galeria Alfredo Ginocchio, Mexico City, Mexico

2007 Lovely Creatures, Mexican Consulate, San Francisco, California. USA

2005 Icono-Hombres, Centro Morelense de las Artes, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

2004 Episodios, Dozsa Muveledesi Haz Cultural Center, Budapest, Hungary

2004 El Mundo de los Dioses, La Habana Art Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

2002 Recorridos por el tiempo, Bellas Artes, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

2002 Recorridos por el tiempo, Praxis Art Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

2001 En Busca de la Palabra, 123 Art Gallery, San Salvador, El Salvador 

2001 En Busca de la Palabra, Praxis Art Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

2000 Viajeros, Praxis Art Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

Group Exhibitions

2019 Insitum, fifteen artists on specific sites, Las Campanas, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

2019 Summer in SOMA, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA

2019 Latitud, Juan Soriana Museum of contemporary Art, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico

2019 Out of Town, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, California, USA

2018 Obra en Obra, in-site architectural intervention, Mexico City, Mexico

2017 Work x 5, Clark Gallery, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA

2017 Drip n Dry, Slate Contemporary,  California, USA

2015 Alter Pop Explosion, NM Art Gallery, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico 

2015 SMART Art Festival, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico 

2013 Arte Sana, Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, Mexico

2009 No Toxico, Fundidora Park. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico