The New York Times on Mitchell Algus Gallery Exhibit

Holland Cotter writes in The New York Times about the exhibit "THE FILIPINO ROOTS OF MINIMALISM: Leo Valledor and Mario Yrisarry" at The Mitchell Algus Gallery.

We owe Mitchell Algus for yet another historical rescue, with this show of two painters who had a strong New York moment decades ago, then disappeared...

...Many people were making big changes in those days; a lot of art and reputations were lost or mislaid. It’s good to see these artists at their brief, high moment, restored.

Togonon Gallery Announcement

Roots in the Bay
Togonon Gallery
77 Geary Street, 2nd floor
San Francisco, California 94108
(415) 398-5572
October 5th through October 28th, 2006

Opening Reception - Thursday, October 5th from 5:30 - 8 pm

LA Weekly on MSG Exhibit

Peter Frank writes in LA Weekly about three Los Angeles shows in the article "A Lot of Local Abstraction."

...Carlos Villa and the late Leo Valledor, both Filipino–Bay Areans — cousins, in fact, born the same year (1936) but with very different artistic temperaments — show together to great advantage. Villa’s the more reticent, conceptual one, exploring gray nuances and constructed painting-objects. Valledor did big, bold, geometric forms, the colors brilliant. Valledor’s is a ’60s mentality, cultivated in New York before he returned West; Villa’s cool, misty, contemplative spirit is total San Fran Zen...

Work at the Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery

FASTPASSIN'
HOTOSHO
IN THE AM
SUNDAY PAINTING
BIG CHIEF
BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
WE SHALL OVERCOME
and a selection of small pieces

Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery Announcement

Leo Valledor / Carlos Villa
Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery
40 Mills Place
Pasadena, California 91105
(626) 535-975
September 9th through October 3rd, 2006

Opening Reception - Saturday, September 9th from 7 - 9 pm

Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery Show

Leo Valledor / Carlos Villa
Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery
40 Mills Place
Pasadena, California 91105
(626) 535-975
September 9th through October 3rd, 2006

Opening Reception - Saturday, September 9th from 7 - 9 pm

Text from the Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery announcement:
Cousins Leo Valledor and Carlos Villa share an artistic vision that, in different ways, seeks expression of their individual and group identities through modern abstract Western traditions. Leo Valledor (1936-1989), who grew up in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, was at the vanguard of the minimalist painting movement in 1974. Art critics have placed his work in the league of Ellsworth Kelly, Barnett Newman and Leon Polk Smith. In a recent catalog essay about Valledor's work, art curator Lawrence Rinder said, “Abandoning the gestural language of abstract expressionism (which would linger in the Bay area for decades), Valledor started to explore reduced palettes, geometric shapes, and the spatial dimension of color.” He received his art education at the California School of Fine Arts. Carlos Villa, born on December 11, 1936, and raised in San Francisco, began his long career in 1957 with a first drawing lesson from cousin Leo Valledor, whom he cites as his most influential artist role model. Since then, he has committed his art-and very much his life-to his search for identity, fusing modern abstraction with his Filipino heritage. In the process, his work, as it changes and shifts with its environment, comments on the social development of multicultural communities.