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Biography
Luis Valderas received a BFA in Secondary Art Education from the University of Texas-Pan American. Valderas co-founded Project: MASA I, II, and III, a national group exhibit featuring Latino artist and focusing on Chicano identities. He is also the co-founder of 3rd Space Art Gallery, a space devoted to representing current trends in the San Antonio visual arts scene, A3—Agents of Change LLC, a public art community engagement collaborative. Valderas has had the opportunity to show not only locally and nationally, but also internationally. His work was exhibited at OSDE Espacio de Arte in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the Medellin Museum of Art in Medellin, Colombia. Valderas’ work has been featured in books such as Altermundos-Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film and Popular Culture. Mundos Alternos-Art and Science Fiction in the Americas. Chicano Art for Our Millennium-2004 and Triumph in Our Communities: Four Decades of Mexican American Art-2005. His work is part of several collections including UTSA, the Arizona State University, International Museum of Art and Science, Mexic-Arte Museum, Art Museum of South Texas, Instituto for Latino Studies/Notre Dame and the San Antonio Museum of Art.
Artist Statement
My images explore possibilities of decolonization by isolating and rearranging iconic components of realities. By combining ideas in cosmology, Meso-American mythology, and my family’s stories into my work I reframe my experiences of growing up on the Frontera revealing spaces of shared experiences. Retelling my family’s stories while at the same time representing them as collective elements of cultural icons intermingled with impressions of events allows me to connect the collective experience of past and present generations, to collapse borders, to transform and explore social and cultural ambiguities that exist in that space in between.
It is my belief that identity past—present—future is in constant evolution. The intermingling of cultures in a more tolerant society in the future. Adaptation and transformation require a foot in the past and present, a familiarity with transitions between borders, and flexibility that is conducive to a re-imagination of realities.
Medium
Installation, Digital Photo-Collage, Mixed Media, Printmaking
