Hashimoto Contemporary is pleased to present “Works Sighted,” a solo show of new paintings by Anna Valdez. The artist will debut a series of observational still lifes, examining aesthetic history and personal identity through the objects of domestic space.

Valdez constructs vibrant compositions that hum with pattern and slowly formulate through gestural detail. The exhibition title “Works Sighted” refers to the artists’s process of using immediate surroundings as a principle subject. The resulting works are “invention through observation”, and utilize the framework of the still life to create portraits of personal and collective memory.

Valdez’s paintings are reflexive. The expression of her brush combined with the curation of the depicted objects pays homage to the history of the medium, and the distinguishable feature of lush greenery embodies the organic process of artistic creation. Her work analyzes traditions of value and the significance of ritual, in order to understand the magnitude of cultural communication within a personal sphere.

With a background in anthropology, Valdez is a keen observer and closely formulates her subjects with meticulous intention. Instead of unearthing artifacts of a bygone age, she visualizes narratives empirically, connecting contemporary existence to deeply rooted cultural histories. In one piece entitled “Ways of Seeing”, Valdez paints a tableau from her studio. Plants frame a cluttered table-top of pictures, notes, and canonical visual texts. Rather than a passive recording of this narrative scene, her painting is embedded with whimsical subjectivity.