Anna Valdez is a multi-disciplinary artist who examines the relationship between objects, cultural formation, and collective consciousness. Creating epic tableaux in her studio, Valdez moves seamlessly between still life and landscape painting as she collects objects and makes new ones—throwing, firing, and glazing new ceramic vessels inspired by ideas for paintings, new plants or taxidermy, recent trips, or works in progress. Toggling between collection, creation, observation, and fictionalization, Valdez works with saturated hues and surprising scale shifts to communicate an abstract temporality. Layering the personal with the historical in dense compositions that collapse foreground and background, Valdez’s compositions resemble immersive installations.

Valdez (b. 1985, California, United States) received her BA in Anthropology and Art from University of California, Davis in 2009 and her MFA in painting from Boston University in 2013. Her work has been exhibited nationally at venues including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR; North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC; New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT, Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC; Cañada College in Redwood City, CA; Hashimoto Contemporary in San Francisco, CA; David B. Smith Gallery in Denver, CO; 1969 Gallery, Alexander Berggruen Gallery, and Nancy Margolis Gallery in New York, NY; and OCHI in Sun Valley, ID and Los Angeles, CA. Valdez’s work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Juxtapoz, Artforum, Artsy, and Artillery Magazine. Her work is included in various private and public collections including the American Museum of Ceramic Arts in Pomona, CA; Xiao Museum in Rizhao, China; the Phyllis & Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art at Chapman University in Orange, CA; the Microsoft Art Collection in Seattle, WA; and Aritzia in Toronto, Canada. Valdez currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA