NORTH ADAMS, MASS.- MASS MoCA is presenting Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream…, the artist’s first museum survey, including previously unexhibited and new bodies of work. Co-organized by MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). Spanning over two decades of his work, from early career drawings to recent monumental portraits, Just a Dream… cements Valdez as one of the most important American painters working today — imaging his country and its people, politics, pride, and foibles.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Valdez began painting murals at age ten, catalyzing a lifelong commitment to ‘create images about people, and for people’. He makes artwork to counter the social amnesia he sees recurring through history, encouraging us to find new paths forward by reckoning with the past. Valdez asserts that the unfolding American tale is an ever-expanding range of experiences which includes the historic contributions and legacy of Mexican-Americans among others. His work, centered on unspoken or forgotten histories and peoples, reminds us of our agency in writing a more just future.

Valdez often works in series, and Just a Dream…unites 25 years of work for the first time, like chapters in a book chronicling the United States. This includes exhibiting almost his entire Stations series from large scale charcoal drawings chronicling a weary boxer as a stand in for the American dream, and the ongoing series The Beginning is Near (An American Trilogy) which began in 2015 and continues today, consisting of Chapter One: The City; Chapter Two: Dream Baby Dream; and Chapter Three: The New Americans.

The trilogy’s first chapter examines America’s prevailing system of white supremacy in its various forms of overt and covert existence traced throughout the American landscape, past and present. Chapter Two: Dream Baby Dream presents portraits of members from a “New American Family” — mourners from the televised eulogy for Muhammad Ali’s funeral. The final act, Chapter Three: The New Americans, offers intimate examinations of everyday hope through portraits of impactful individuals, including artists, musicians, and activists, scattered across the country.

Valdez observes U.S. contemporary life, presenting it through the lens of American mythos, media imagery, and personal portraits. He channels the nation’s realities across monumental works, harkening towards large-scale cinematic formats, addressing storied injustices while also celebrating individual humanity. Valdez frequently harkens back to a quote by writer Gore Vidal: “We are the United States of Amnesia, we learn nothing because we remember nothing.” Of his own practice the artist states: “I am an observer. I bear witness. I am committed to putting it down on record. To testify. I choose to confront the world as opposed to turning away from it.”

“As a witness, Vincent isn’t afraid to peel back the veil, to pay deep attention, and to understand that history happens the moment we capture it. He knows that the past is a ghost that haunts us in the present and his paintings unflinchingly represent truths we are often blind to,” says MASS MoCA Chief Curator Denise Markonish. “This prophetic imaging was evident when we met in his San Antonio studio in 2016. We looked at his drawing of a bald eagle laying dead on its back representing the ruptured American dream, and we’ve been collaborating ever since beginning with Suffering From Realness (2019) at MASS MoCA. Just a Dream... is an opportunity to share Vincent's work with a much wider audience both at MASS MoCA and with our co-organizing partners at CAMH.”

MASS MoCA’s presentation of Just a Dream… expands from the presentation in Houston through the addition of a number of works including drawings from the artists Stations series (2002–2004); the early painting of the artist’s brother Yo Soy-ee Blaxican (I am Blaxican), 2004; and new works from the artist’s on-going series entitled It Was a Very Good Year. This series, titled after the song of the same name, begins with recognizable images from news media during the artist’s lifetime and consists of two canvases: Oliver North swearing in at the Iran-Contra Hearings (1987) and Michael Jordan’s gravity defying slam dunk contest (1988). The paintings render their subjects in near life-size, pulling them off the screen and into space as free standing objects attached back-to-back.

"Vincent’s fearless commitment to chronicling undertold histories has moved CAMH’s visitors, who have connected with his portrayal of resistance and community as counters to inequity," says CAMH Curator Patricia Restrepo. "MASS MoCA will provide a rich and expanded iteration of Just a Dream…, and I’m excited to see how Vincent’s continued reckoning with America as both muse and adversary resonates with new audiences."

“This exhibition is a 25 year testament to my love and commitment for creating images as instruments that ignite public remembrance,” says artist Vincent Valdez. “Presented for the very first time is a two-decade conversation that has persistently occurred between the world and my studio. A close examination of what I have chosen to confront as opposed to what I turn away from. This exhibition, in collaboration with CAMH and MASS MoCA, marks an important moment in my lifelong effort to create images about people, for people. I offer this work as a report. My visual testimony about an unfolding tale of hope, struggle, and survival in 21st century America.”

A bilingual publication, edited by Denise Markonish, will accompany the exhibition along with essays by herself, MASS MoCA Curator Evan Garza, American artist Joyce Carol Oates, and CAMH Assistant Curator Patricia Restrepo. It is published by X Artists’ Books and co-published by MASS MoCA and CAMH.

Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream... is co-organized by Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) and Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). The exhibition is co-curated by MASS MoCA Chief Curator Denise Markonish, and CAMH Assistant Curator Patricia Restrepo.

Vincent Valdez (b. 1977, San Antonio, TX) lives and works in Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA. He received a full scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design, earning his BFA in 2000. He was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors (2016), as well as completing residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting (2005), the Vermont Studio Center (2011), the Kunstlerhaus Bethania Berlin Residency (2014), and Joan Mitchell Center (2018). Valdez was the 2019 Artadia awardee in Houston, TX, and a 2020 artist fellow at NXTHVN in New Haven. Recent exhibitions include The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now, Smithsonian Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; So Different, So Appealing, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; The City, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Between Play and Grief: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Suffering from Realness, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; and ESTAMOS BIEN: LA TRIENAL 20/21, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. The artist has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Smithsonian’s 2022 National Portrait Award. Valdez’s portrait of his grandparents was presented in The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today, a major exhibition premiering at the National Portrait Gallery from April 30, 2022 through February 26, 2023, before traveling to other cities in the United States. He is represented by Matthew Brown Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.