Hidden Truths: New Paintings by Francisco Valverde

Francisco Valverde was born in 1972 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.

This exhibition is sponsored by Clifford and Eve Clarke, Fred and Mary Anna Feitler, Anonymous (6), Kathy Callen and John Powell, and Kathleen Summers through their gifts to the 2019 FWMoA Annual Fund. Support for the exhibition was inspired by Jeanne Blines of Bloomington, Illinois.