Home > Artists > Painters > Vito Valdez

Vito Valdez

Muralist whose status as a sa­cred cow needs to be se­ri­ous­ly re­ex­am­ined.

Selected with Katie Yamasaki for a Knight Arts Challenge match­ing funds grant in 2015. The match­ing funds grant was for them to fi­nal­ly complete a mural near Ver­nor and Ferdinand in Detroit.

As of late 2019, the Vernor and Ferdinand mural seemed close to com­ple­tion, after a burst of activity months prior. Which was not surprising, given that the ex­treme­ly heavy transactional bur­dens of Knight Foundation match­ing funds grants are a lot even for artists with integrity.

As of 2025, it appears the Vernor and Ferdinand mural will not be completed at all, due to a change in ownership of the building the mural is on.

Upcoming exhibitions

Don't know.

Past exhibitions

• Out of the Vault, Into the Light at Detroit Artists Market, curated by Leslie Graves. With featured artist Lori Ellsworth. April 19, 2024 — May 18, 2024.
• Uprising at Hatch Art. November 2 — 30, 2019.
• Some "multimedia" exhibit pertaining to the still incomplete mural, at the Mexicantown Cultural Center in Detroit. May 5 – 31, 2018.
• City Walls, sponsored by the Southwest Detroit Business Association. October 26, 2017.
• El Grito de Mi Raza (curator), at Ellen Kayrod Gallery. March 10, 2017 – April 21, 2017.
• The Essential Self: Meditations on the Politics of Identity at Detroit Artists Market. June 12, 2015 – July 18, 2015.
• Mundo Mericas: Contemporary Art of the Americas, in the Main and Rose Galleries of the N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art. March 27, 2015 – May 30, 2015.
• ...a few more going back decades...

Also exhibited at Johanson Charles Gallery many years ago, and was in a retrospective for that gallery at Office Space Gallery.

External links

• Knight Foundation matching funds grant page

News

• Alonso del Arte, "Vito Valdez shows the proper way to plan a mural", Daily Kos, August 3, 2016.

Reviews

PLACEHOLDER FOR REVIEWS