2023 TEXAS ARTIST OF THE YEAR VINCENT VALDEZ

In his exhibition as the Art League Houston (ALH), 2023 Texas Artist of the Year, Vincent Valdez examines memory and remembrance from both personal and cultural perspectives. His installation piece, Siete Dias/Seven Days, features an installation of twenty-one banners suspended from the gallery’s ceiling that showcase a handful of the over 150,000 individuals who have disappeared in Central and South America since the 1970s.Central to Siete Dias are fourteen haunting portraits of disappeared individuals drawn from an archival calendar originally published in 1980s Central America. These ghostly depictions exude a palpable presence, organized in a chapel-like arrangement, with three rows of portraits inviting visitors to contemplate the enigma of their absence. Read more at artleaguehouston.org.