if you haven't yet...
Check out the Leo Valledor exhibit at the Togonon Gallery if you haven't done so yet. Show ends April 8.
Reviewed by Sharon Mizota for SF Weekly.com
"Selected Works: Paintings by Leo Valledor (1936-1989)"
In the 1970s, Leo Valledor was a prominent Bay Area painter who had solo exhibitions at SFMOMA and the de Young, but since his death in 1989, the Filipino-American artist has received little public attention. This selection of refined yet ebullient abstractions from the '80s makes that neglect hard to understand. At a time when local art was still marked by the gestural fury of abstract expressionism, Valledor was the consummate minimalist. His paintings are little more than hard-edged areas of flat color on board or canvas, but he worked within these stylistic limits to evoke the energy of jazz and playfully skew our perceptions of space. The Bridge for Sonny Rollins) is a composition of rectangles and trapezoids in black, orange, and blue whose angles suggest an ascending three-dimensional space, even as its colors vibrate in abstract syncopation. A painting on board cut in an angled surfboard shape, Coming/Going is a two-tone work that subtly flickers between a flat outline and a three-dimensional tube. Valledor was a master of color, making even muted hues like pistachio and plum feel vibrant and necessary. With dreamy, jazz-inspired titles like NuVu, Cubibop, and Wholagin, Valledor's paintings inject a potentially dry, academic style with personality and sly humor.
Through April 8 at Togonon Gallery, 77 Geary (at Grant), S.F. Admission is free; call 398-5572 or visit www.togonongallery.com. (Sharon Mizota) Reviewed March 29.
p. 35, SF Weekly March 29, 2006
Reviewed by Sharon Mizota for SF Weekly.com
"Selected Works: Paintings by Leo Valledor (1936-1989)"
In the 1970s, Leo Valledor was a prominent Bay Area painter who had solo exhibitions at SFMOMA and the de Young, but since his death in 1989, the Filipino-American artist has received little public attention. This selection of refined yet ebullient abstractions from the '80s makes that neglect hard to understand. At a time when local art was still marked by the gestural fury of abstract expressionism, Valledor was the consummate minimalist. His paintings are little more than hard-edged areas of flat color on board or canvas, but he worked within these stylistic limits to evoke the energy of jazz and playfully skew our perceptions of space. The Bridge for Sonny Rollins) is a composition of rectangles and trapezoids in black, orange, and blue whose angles suggest an ascending three-dimensional space, even as its colors vibrate in abstract syncopation. A painting on board cut in an angled surfboard shape, Coming/Going is a two-tone work that subtly flickers between a flat outline and a three-dimensional tube. Valledor was a master of color, making even muted hues like pistachio and plum feel vibrant and necessary. With dreamy, jazz-inspired titles like NuVu, Cubibop, and Wholagin, Valledor's paintings inject a potentially dry, academic style with personality and sly humor.
Through April 8 at Togonon Gallery, 77 Geary (at Grant), S.F. Admission is free; call 398-5572 or visit www.togonongallery.com. (Sharon Mizota) Reviewed March 29.
p. 35, SF Weekly March 29, 2006
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