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, founded by Titus Kaphar and Jonathan Brand.

The artist’s work is included in numerous museum collections across the United States. Recent institutional exhibitions include The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now, Smithsonian Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC (2017); So Different, So Appealing, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA (2017); The City, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX (2018); Between Play and Grief: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2019); Suffering from Realness curated by Denise Markonish Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA); (2019); and ESTAMOS BIEN: LA TRIENAL 20/21 at El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (2021).

Notably, the artist has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Smithsonian’s 2022 National Portrait Award. Valdez’ portrait of his grandparents will be presented presented in The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today, a major exhibition premiering at the National Portrait Gallery from April 30, 2022, through Feb. 26, 2023, before traveling to other cities in the United States.