Ricardo Valverde: Experimental Sights, 1971-1996
The late Los Angeles-based photographer and artist Ricardo Valverde (1946-1998) is featured in a career retrospective at the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) at East Los Angeles College. The exhibition is guest-curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, CSRC visiting scholar and former chief curator at the Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA), and highlights more than one hundred artworks spanning a twenty-five-year period of production.
Ricardo Valverde: Experimental Sights, 1971-1996, includes works in a wide range of media, from black-and-white and color photographs, to solarized and intervened gelatin silver prints, to painterly collages that incorporate photographs and are mounted on canvas. The exhibition includes several videos; slide projections from Valverde’s photographs of lowriders, Day of the Dead celebrations, commercial signage; a light box with experimental slides treated as sculptural objects; and ceramic sculptures that resonate with his photography.
VPAM’s exhibition is the first survey of Valverde’s extensive body of work, and it is undertaken in partnership with the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, which recently published Ricardo Valverde, a new monograph by Ramón García in the award-winning A Ver: Revisioning Art History series. The exhibition includes works on loan from the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.
A catalog for the exhibition is available in PDF format here. Foreword by CSRC director Chon A. Noriega and VPAM director Karen Rapp; essays by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, guest curator of the exhibition, Armando Cristeto Patiño, and Jesse Lerner. The catalog features more than forty color illustrations.
Ricardo Valverde: Experimental Sights, 1971-1996
May 17-July 26, 2014
Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM), East Los Angeles College
1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754-6099
Opening Reception
May 17, 2014, 4-6 p.m.
Public Programs
Saturday, June 14, 2-4 p.m. at VPAM
Panel discussion:
Join CSRC director Chon Noriega in conversation with the exhibition’s curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, author Ramón García, and artist Rubén Ortiz Torres.
Saturday, June 21, 2 p.m. at VPAM
Curator’s walk-through:
Join guest curator Cecilia Fajardo-Hill for a tour of the exhibition.
Media Coverage
"Beyond Frida Kahlo: Covering Latino and Latin American Art in the U.S"
Journalist Carolina Miranda references the Valverde exhibition in the context of institutional attention to Latino artists
Radio Ambulante: Unscripted, August 28, 2014 (PDF)
Listen to the interview here.
"The Camera's Secrets: Ricardo Valverde's Visionary Images"
A commentary on the exhibition by Max Benavidez, author and communications professional.
Huffington Post, July 23, 2014 (PDF)
"Mick Jagger, Lowriders, and Men in Suits: Images From L.A. Photographer Ricardo Valverde’s First Retrospective Invite You to Slow Down, Look, and Look Again"
A story and slideshow focused on the exhibition.
Zócalo Public Square web magazine, July 12, 2014 (PDF)
"Ricardo Valverde at Vincent Price Museum: Fresh Look at a Probing Eye"
A review of the exhibition by Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight.
LATimes.com, June 26, 2014 (PDF)
Los Angeles Times (print edition), June 24, 2014 (PDF)
"Why You Need to Know the Photography of Ricardo Valverde"
A feature on the exhibition by Carolina A. Miranda, author of the Times blog Culture: High & Low.
Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2014 (PDF)
“Ricardo Valverde’s ‘Solo Landing’”
A review by Armando Durón of the exhibition Ricardo Valverde: Experimental Sights, 1971–1991, a collaboration between the Vincent Price Art Museum and the CSRC.
Brooklyn & Boyle, May 2014 (PDF)
“Photos: A Retrospective of Chicano Artist Ricardo Valverde”
A preview of the exhibition Ricardo Valverde: Experimental Sites, 1971–1996.
LAist, May 17, 2014 (PDF)
"Experimental Photographer to Be Featured at VPAM"
A preview of Ricardo Valverde: Experimental Sights, 1971-1996, a collaboration between VPAM and the CSRC.
East Los Angeles College Campus News, May 14, 2014 (PDF)
