Vincent Valdez
Keep Your Guard Up Son, Now Get Back Out There and Fight!, 2004
charcoal on paper
60 x 42 inches

In this exhibition, Texas-based artist Vincent Valdez uses the Passion story as the basis for a series of large-scale charcoal drawings that recast Christ as a boxer and the crucifixion as a boxing match. Embracing the dark themes of manhood and spirituality, Valdez transforms the Passion into a rite of passage, and a boy's struggle to grow into manhood by confronting his own fears. "I was thinking of the concept of a tragic hero," says Valdez. "He was this young male who was struggling in every aspect of the world and his life. I never intended it to have anything to do with Christ as a religious image or Christ as an icon." Instead, Valdez' boxer becomes the everyman, our stand-in for the Christ figure, as he takes our beatings in the ring.

Peppered with scenes and figures from the artist's personal life, most of the images do not depict the action, but rather the moments when the boxer lies felled in the ring or recovering on the sidelines – a tactic that puts the focus on contemplation, rather than competition. "I wanted to leave it open," Valdez says, "so you could make up your own story and decide what you want to see in it." But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Stations is that its focus is not on victory or glory. Instead, the cycle seems to suggest that in life, as much as in boxing and in art, real success lies in being willing to confront one's difficulties and fears – and continuing to grow, despite them.

Vincent Valdez received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000. He has had one-person shows at the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, the San Antonio Art League Museum, and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas. He is represented by Finesilver Gallery, also in San Antonio. He has also exhibited his work at Parsons University, Paris; the Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Smithsonian; and the Mexican Museum in Chicago. His work is included in the collection of Cheech Marin, and is part of the traveling exhibition Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge. He currently resides in San Antonio.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Opening reception with talk by the artist
February 15, 2006
University Gallery, upper level

For more information about special events associated with this exhibition, please call the gallery information line at 765.658.4336