Public Opening | Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream...

Join us for the Public Opening of , the artist’s first major museum survey and spans over two decades of artwork.

The celebration will showcase performances, a DJ set, drinks, and food to welcome a first look at Vincent Valdez's work across both upstairs and downstairs galleries.

The unique perofrmance lineup and show will include a mix of Gaitan’s original “Tejas Roots” music along with a curated set of covers paying tribute to legends and cultivators from Houston, San Antonio and further down the Gulf Coast that have had an influence on his work and sound. This performance also includes classics from golden eras of Lydia Mendoza, Chavela Vargas, and Trio Los Panchos up to more contemporary times in Chicano Music and with all its roots.

This event is free to attend, but RSVP's are encouraged.

7–7:30PM | Performance by Segundo Barrio Children’s Choir

7:30–8:30PM | Performance by Nick Gaitan

8:30–10PM | DJ Set by Chicano Boulevard

Did you know Members of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston get first hour access to exhibitions and exclusive benefit? Learn more about Membership at CAMH here.

Complimentary drinks will be available on a first come first serve basis. Food will be available for purchase.

Complimentary parking is available for attendees of this event in the parking garage connected to 5020 Montrose Blvd. Garage parking is limited and based on availability.

Garage access for all parking is located on Bartlett. The first floor down ramp is reserved for vehicles with handicapped stickers and ADA accessible parking at first come first serve. Garage hours for this event are from 5-11PM. All vehicles must exit by 11PM. There is no elevator access in the garage. For your safety, please only use the stairs to access each floor. Do not walk the ramp. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is not liable for any loss or damage to vehicles and its contents.

Vincent Valdez (b. 1977, San Antonio, TX) lives and works in Houston, TX and Los Angeles, CA. He received a full scholarship to the Rhode Island School of Design, earning his BFA in 2000. He was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters and Sculptors (2016), as well as completing residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting (2005), the Vermont Studio Center (2011), the Kunstlerhaus Bethania Berlin Residency (2014), and Joan Mitchell Center (2018). Valdez was the 2019 Artadia awardee in Houston, TX, and a 2020 artist fellow at NXTHVN in New Haven. Recent exhibitions include The Face of Battle: Americans at War, 9/11 to Now, Smithsonian Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; So Different, So Appealing, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; The City, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Between Play and Grief: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Suffering from Realness, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; and ESTAMOS BIEN: LA TRIENAL 20/21, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY. The artist has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Smithsonian’s 2022 National Portrait Award. Valdez’s portrait of his grandparents was presented in The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today, a major exhibition premiering at the National Portrait Gallery from April 30, 2022 through Feb. 26, 2023, before traveling to other cities in the United States. He is represented by Matthew Brown Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.

Chicano Boulevard was founded by Isaac Rodriguez and Robert Apodaca. The group is currently made up of six members. Each bringing experience, knowledge, and a unique skill-set that helps contribute to the overall mission. That mission is to celebrate, preserve and educate on all aspects Chicano Culture. Other members include David, Ben, Jocelyn, and Johnny.

A singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Nick Gaitan makes music rooted in Houston’s East End and broader Gulf Coast: Tejano, Chicano Soul, Country, Blues, Swamp Pop, Rockabilly, and Soul. He’s a master of the tololoche, Mexico’s signature version of the double bass, and has played with greats including Billy Joe Shaver, Los Skarnales, and Nikki Hill. Gaitan is also an active Chicano Community music scholar and historian, working to celebrate, explore, and preserve the sounds that have shaped him.

About Segundo Barrio Children's Chorus

Houston’s first-and-only bilingual children’s choir, Segundo Barrio Children's Chorus (SBCC), transforms the lives of children and their families through tuition-free music-education, coupled with transformative performance opportunities at community events throughout Segundo Barrio/East-End and greater Houston. Arts-education and creative-expression are proven to build character & confidence, instill discipline, foster pride in cultural-identity and build community. Our focus on YOUTH-DEVELOPMENT keeps children off the streets and engaged in the arts, while also reducing drop-out rates and increasing overall academic-outcomes.

Support

Presenting sponsorship for Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream… is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Major exhibition support is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Jacques & Natasha Gelman Foundation, and Judy and Charles Tate. Generous support is provided by grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Beverly and Howard Robinson. Exhibition catalogue support provided by the Arthur & Alice Adams Charitable Foundation. Additional support is provided by Nicole Deller and Matt Bliwise, Lisa Rich and John McLaughlin, Meridee Moore, the Weingarten Art Group Fund, and Ric and Tina Whitney. Special thanks to Jon Cooper, Enrico Encarnacion, Janet Flohr, Tessa Ferreyros, Jan Greenberg, Clara Ha, Glenn Ligon, Mary Maas, Anne Parke, and Elizabeth Tenenbaum.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston exhibitions are made possible by the patrons, benefactors, and donors to CAMH’s Major Exhibition Fund: Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Louise Jamail, Sissy and Denny Kempner, Dillon Kyle and Sam Lasseter, Cabrina and Steven Owsley, Elisa and Cris Pye, Beverly and Howard Robinson, Louisa Stude Sarofim, and Mary Ann and F. Carrington Weems Foundation.

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the state arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Host or Publisher Contemporary Arts Museum Houston