Jose Villalobos
The Oaxacan painter was trained as an architect at the Autonomous National University of Mexico and practiced this profession for years before the calling of painting was too loud to ignore. Each Villalobos painting is a closed system of relationships, and this effect of elements working together from top to bottom and side-to-side, amounts to a visual journey undertaken by Villalobos—and the viewer—into a personal, interior place full of psychological portents.
Biography
The abstract paintings of Jose Villalobos establish a dynamic tension through the interplay of opposites. The large, architectonic works feature solid forms that also appear evanescent, and areas of mass that are acted upon by a lively line or by drips of pigment. In a Villalobos painting fluidity tempers stability, foreground commingles with infinite space, light frames darkness, and warm colors are in dialogue with cool tones. Villalobos’s well-structured paintings unfold like musical compositions, with subtle relationships emerging slowly, working in concert with the initial impact of his biomorphic arches and openings and geometric debris.
The counterpoint of elements is energetic. Unified by the force of rhythms across the picture plane, shapes, forms and colors move at once out of depth and into space, left, right, up and down in ways that suggest flux or becoming. It is as if his abstractions exist only temporarily, and will change into some other configuration in the next moment, or will flow, like flotsam and jetsam, down the cosmic river.
Each Villalobos painting is a closed system of relationships, and this effect of elements working together from top to bottom and side-to-side, amounts to a visual journey undertaken by Villalobos—and the viewer—into a personal, interior place full of psychological portents.
The Oaxacan painter was trained as an architect at the Autonomous National University of Mexico and practiced this profession for years before the calling of painting was too loud to ignore. Villalobos has been influenced by Mexican modernist painters, including Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo, and uses the earth tones and soulful colors of primitive Mexican culture in his abstract vehicles. Since the early 1980s, Villalobos has exhibited in Mexico City and throughout Mexico.
Born
1950 Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Education
Architecture, The Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City.
Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions
2022 (July) Of a Different Design, Flight Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2022 Desert Rider, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
2022 Sweeping the Mantle of the Earth, Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO
2022 SoundSpace: Conversation Pieces, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2022 The Border is a Weapon, 937 Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2022 Semillas, Liliana Bloch Gallery, Dallas, TX
2021 The Measure of a Cock, FLXST Contemporary, Chicago, Illinois
2021 Por Maricón: The Measures and Violence of Masculinity, Dallas Latino Cultural Center, Dallas, TX
2021 de los otros, Artpace, San Antonio, TX
2020 Joto Fronterizo: Selected Works , Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX
2020 Entre Paredes Propias, Clamp Light Gallery, San Antonio,TX
2019 Entre Fibras Culturales/Between Cultural Fibers, Strut Gallery , San Francisco, CA
2019 Fragmentos y Suturas, South Texas College, McAllen, TX 2019 Gay as an Accessory, Space HL Gallery, Houston TX
2019 Cicatrices , Presa House Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2018 35th Anniversayr Group Exhibition, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco
2018 Lost, Found, and Reconstructed, Clamp Light Contemporary, San Antonio, TX
2017 Flamboyant Ego (Changarrito Exhibit), Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX
2016 De La Misma Piel, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, TX
2015 Skin and Within, Clamp Light Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2015 Art Market SF, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2014 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2009 Art of Oaxaca, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2008 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2004 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
1999 Las Tierras Altas, Cultural Center of Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico.
1998 Las Tierras Altas, Contemporary Art Museum of Oaxaca, Mexico.
1996 Houses and Things, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1995 Mixteca´s Canvas, Sintesis Gallery, Puebla, Mexico.
1994 El Mar Baldio, Presentation of Engravings created under sponsorship of the Arts, International Education Institute, Cultural Institute of Mexico, New York, NY.
1993 Time and It’s Places, Quetzallí´s Gallery, Oaxaca, Mexico.
1992 De todas suertes, Kin Gallery, Mexico City.
1991 Vestigios Obstinados, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1989 Rastros de Tiempo, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1988 Varia Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico.
1987 Ofrendas y Reliquias, Frida Kahlo Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1986 Earthly Days, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
Spring Festival in the Historical Section, Gallery of the Cultural Centre of the Ministry of Finance, Mexico City, Mexico.
1985 Four Painters, Varia Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico.
1984 Visual Arts and Aesthetic Investigations Center, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
El Paisaje Veracruzano, University of Veracruz Gallery, Veracruz, Mexico.
Leon, Taxco Gallery, INBA, Aguascalientes, Isauro Martinez Theatre, Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico.
Oils and Watercolours, University Gallery of the UAP, Puebla, Mexico.
River Waters, Sponsored by Tierra Adentro, INBA, Casa de la Cultura de Celaya, Mexico.
Guanajuato, Instituto Potosino de Bellas Artes, San Luis Potosi; Fine Arts Institute of Tamaulipas, Victoria, Mexico.
Tamaulipas, Centre of Visual Arts and Aesthetic Research, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
Monterrey Cultural Centre, Nuevo, Mexico.
1983 Plastica Zapoteca, University Pinacotheca, Autonomous University of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.
First Place Watercolors, Gallery of the Americas, Puebla, Mexico.
1981 Agora Gallery, Fonapas, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Permanent Collections
SOHO House International, Austin, TX
Instituto Digital Cesar Chavez Secretaria Relaciones Exteriores Gobierno De Mexico
Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Albright College, Reading, PA
Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX
The City of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Awards
2022 Dash Award Grantee, Atlanta, GA
2020 Tanne Foundation Award, Boston, MA
2018-19 Joan Mitchell Painters And Sculptors Grant, New York, NY
2016 Artist Lab Fellowship Grant, San Antonio, TX
2010 First Place for Trinidad Sanchez Border Lines
Press
PRESS
Selected Artworks
Born
1950 Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Education
Architecture, The Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City.
Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions
2022 (July) Of a Different Design, Flight Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2022 Desert Rider, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
2022 Sweeping the Mantle of the Earth, Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO
2022 SoundSpace: Conversation Pieces, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2022 The Border is a Weapon, 937 Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
2022 Semillas, Liliana Bloch Gallery, Dallas, TX
2021 The Measure of a Cock, FLXST Contemporary, Chicago, Illinois
2021 Por Maricón: The Measures and Violence of Masculinity, Dallas Latino Cultural Center, Dallas, TX
2021 de los otros, Artpace, San Antonio, TX
2020 Joto Fronterizo: Selected Works , Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX
2020 Entre Paredes Propias, Clamp Light Gallery, San Antonio,TX
2019 Entre Fibras Culturales/Between Cultural Fibers, Strut Gallery , San Francisco, CA
2019 Fragmentos y Suturas, South Texas College, McAllen, TX 2019 Gay as an Accessory, Space HL Gallery, Houston TX
2019 Cicatrices , Presa House Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2018 35th Anniversayr Group Exhibition, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco
2018 Lost, Found, and Reconstructed, Clamp Light Contemporary, San Antonio, TX
2017 Flamboyant Ego (Changarrito Exhibit), Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX
2016 De La Misma Piel, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, TX
2015 Skin and Within, Clamp Light Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2015 Art Market SF, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2014 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2009 Art of Oaxaca, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2008 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2004 Caldwell Snyder Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
1999 Las Tierras Altas, Cultural Center of Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico.
1998 Las Tierras Altas, Contemporary Art Museum of Oaxaca, Mexico.
1996 Houses and Things, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1995 Mixteca´s Canvas, Sintesis Gallery, Puebla, Mexico.
1994 El Mar Baldio, Presentation of Engravings created under sponsorship of the Arts, International Education Institute, Cultural Institute of Mexico, New York, NY.
1993 Time and It’s Places, Quetzallí´s Gallery, Oaxaca, Mexico.
1992 De todas suertes, Kin Gallery, Mexico City.
1991 Vestigios Obstinados, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1989 Rastros de Tiempo, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1988 Varia Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico.
1987 Ofrendas y Reliquias, Frida Kahlo Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1986 Earthly Days, Kin Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
Spring Festival in the Historical Section, Gallery of the Cultural Centre of the Ministry of Finance, Mexico City, Mexico.
1985 Four Painters, Varia Gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico.
1984 Visual Arts and Aesthetic Investigations Center, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
El Paisaje Veracruzano, University of Veracruz Gallery, Veracruz, Mexico.
Leon, Taxco Gallery, INBA, Aguascalientes, Isauro Martinez Theatre, Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico.
Oils and Watercolours, University Gallery of the UAP, Puebla, Mexico.
River Waters, Sponsored by Tierra Adentro, INBA, Casa de la Cultura de Celaya, Mexico.
Guanajuato, Instituto Potosino de Bellas Artes, San Luis Potosi; Fine Arts Institute of Tamaulipas, Victoria, Mexico.
Tamaulipas, Centre of Visual Arts and Aesthetic Research, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
Monterrey Cultural Centre, Nuevo, Mexico.
1983 Plastica Zapoteca, University Pinacotheca, Autonomous University of Puebla, Puebla, Mexico.
First Place Watercolors, Gallery of the Americas, Puebla, Mexico.
1981 Agora Gallery, Fonapas, Oaxaca, Mexico.
Permanent Collections
SOHO House International, Austin, TX
Instituto Digital Cesar Chavez Secretaria Relaciones Exteriores Gobierno De Mexico
Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Albright College, Reading, PA
Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX
The City of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Awards
2022 Dash Award Grantee, Atlanta, GA
2020 Tanne Foundation Award, Boston, MA
2018-19 Joan Mitchell Painters And Sculptors Grant, New York, NY
2016 Artist Lab Fellowship Grant, San Antonio, TX
2010 First Place for Trinidad Sanchez Border Lines
The abstract paintings of Jose Villalobos establish a dynamic tension through the interplay of opposites. The large, architectonic works feature solid forms that also appear evanescent, and areas of mass that are acted upon by a lively line or by drips of pigment. In a Villalobos painting fluidity tempers stability, foreground commingles with infinite space, light frames darkness, and warm colors are in dialogue with cool tones. Villalobos’s well-structured paintings unfold like musical compositions, with subtle relationships emerging slowly, working in concert with the initial impact of his biomorphic arches and openings and geometric debris.
The counterpoint of elements is energetic. Unified by the force of rhythms across the picture plane, shapes, forms and colors move at once out of depth and into space, left, right, up and down in ways that suggest flux or becoming. It is as if his abstractions exist only temporarily, and will change into some other configuration in the next moment, or will flow, like flotsam and jetsam, down the cosmic river.
Each Villalobos painting is a closed system of relationships, and this effect of elements working together from top to bottom and side-to-side, amounts to a visual journey undertaken by Villalobos—and the viewer—into a personal, interior place full of psychological portents.
The Oaxacan painter was trained as an architect at the Autonomous National University of Mexico and practiced this profession for years before the calling of painting was too loud to ignore. Villalobos has been influenced by Mexican modernist painters, including Rufino Tamayo and Francisco Toledo, and uses the earth tones and soulful colors of primitive Mexican culture in his abstract vehicles. Since the early 1980s, Villalobos has exhibited in Mexico City and throughout Mexico.
Biography
Press
The Oaxacan painter was trained as an architect at the Autonomous National University of Mexico and practiced this profession for years before the calling of painting was too loud to ignore. Each Villalobos painting is a closed system of relationships, and this effect of elements working together from top to bottom and side-to-side, amounts to a visual journey undertaken by Villalobos—and the viewer—into a personal, interior place full of psychological portents.
Jose Villalobos
Villalobos' large, architectonic works feature solid forms that also appear evanescent, and areas of mass that are acted upon by a lively line or by drips of pigment.
The Oaxacan painter was trained as an architect at the Autonomous National University of Mexico and practiced this profession for years before the calling of painting was too loud to ignore. Each Villalobos painting is a closed system of relationships, and this effect of elements working together from top to bottom and side-to-side, amounts to a visual journey undertaken by Villalobos—and the viewer—into a personal, interior place full of psychological portents.