Kiki Valdes was born in Miami. FL at the same downtown hospital Bob Marley passed away just a month after in 1981. He attended the New World School of the Arts high school along with other ambitious classmates Jessica Sutta of Pussycat Dolls and paper artist Jen Stark. He later attended Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. During this time he published with his brother Humby a punk rock, culture and humor underground zine called OpenZine (which later became http://www.facebook.com/l/bc279;www.OpenZine.com, a site where anyone can publish web magazines) During the evenings Kiki would paint in his studio and later on pass out the newsprint publication at mostly punk venues such as CBGB’s in New York and Churchill’s in the inner city of Miami.
the Origins of OpenZine
In 2004 Kiki was hired by prominent South Beach nightclub promoters to paint live at some of the biggest celebrity parties in the country. He was commissioned based on the street buzz he was getting from creating live action pieces at different venues across Miami. He saw it as a stepping-stone to promote his work to a bigger audience. At 24 Kiki was creating painterly expressionist like paintings in front of many paparazzi stars including Paris Hilton and Mickey Rourke. He found it witty and ridiculous to create personal subject matter in such boisterous surroundings.
Kiki’s work has always held a strong sense of culture and social commentary. His work is intuitive in composition building, mark making and use of color. In 2008 He along with New York artist Jose Mertz would curate the group exhibition “Hexagone†which featured the work of both artists, Purvis Young, Bhakti Baxter, Friends with You and others. Due to success of this show Kiki was offered a studio at the 3C (Coverings Creative Complex) in the Mimo District of Miami. His newly built work space which he decided to call The Glass Studio is again an unconventional place Kiki Valdes takes his art. Often times doing monthly studio visits and paintings are often purchased by new collectors before the works are even exhibited. Kiki believes going against the status quo and making things new but familiar. The idea of the studio is universal and iconic in art history. For Kiki the studio is a place where you can see progress, just as you see progress while he’s creating a live action painting in a smoky nightclub or museum reception. It cuts out the organized and neat setup of the gallery. It makes you step into the world of where the art is created. A place you can smell the paint and view new innovations that are being resolved or still being sorted out.
Kiki Valdes believes in the imperfections of beauty and he is never afraid to show you that part of himself. While in 2006 Kiki was doing so much live action paintings where he would have to do projects and events 4 times a week. Often times painting over existing paintings from the evening before. He did this because he did not have enough room in his older studio to sustain so many canvas. One night he was painting over a painting with a brush filled with white paint. He realized the whole painting wasn’t important. He noticed applying white paint over the colorful pieces did something more to the painting. He realized it was a direction he needed to go to progress the idea of painting for himself and for his friends. Kiki started to experiment with doing abstractions then covering the existing painting with raw off white canvas. The painting exists underneath newly applied canvas. He would begin to cut out shapes so the parts of the abstractions come through to create a brand new image. In some ways it’s considered collage by the amount of layered colored canvas the artist applies. Kiki for some reason does not see it as collage because he considers college when the media applied are from outside sources such as movie posters and newspaper. All materials in this new series of work are created by him.
Kiki Valdes is a painter heavily influenced by symbolism and fallacy. He is widely known for painting live. The act of painting live involves the subconscious mind and provoked thought while an audience of observers surround him. Valdes has been commissioned for various works by Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, Freedom Tower Art Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, Princeton University and countless others. He has also exhibited at the Florida State Capital Rotunda, PS1 (Museum of Modern Art), Florida International University, Duke University and is in a number of corporate collections. Kiki first started painting in smokey nightclubs for a way that people could interact with art, and the artist to interact with nighlife. Theres a cerrain belief of the artist hidden away in the studio where he/she paints for months on end. Miami is known for its nightlife, for better or for worse. Kiki would just work as a sponge soaking in all of the good and bad energy around him to reflect the speed of contemporary life. Some people think the peices when completed look rushed. There is a certain idea to that, that life moves fast and peoples intake of information needs to be speedy. The viewer does not like to ponder on ideas and pictures for too long. After a night of loud music, long lines and VIP treatment, only two things remain after the sun rises…profits made and what Kiki created. But the days of painting at clubs seems to be over. He now paints at private events and museums, often creating paintings beside masterpieces by such artists as Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Stuart Davis, Robert Matta, Keith Haring and many others. Kiki use to worry about splattering paint on passer bys, now he’s more concerned about flinging paint on a Rauschenberg hung on a museum wall beside his painting performance.
