THIS IS KIKI VALDES

THE 9 MUSES/ PREVIEW 

PORTRAIT SERIES OF 9 MIAMI WOMEN.

I've been working off and on for the past 6 months on a series of black and white portraits.  The canvas's  are of 9 women from Miami that have been in my life in a direct or indirect way. I based it on the Nine Greek Muses. I am going into each portrait on the varied inspirations of the mythology of the goddesses/daughters of Zeus and exploring  how each person relates to one of the nine and I'm applying it to my own existence.

The works themselves have been figurative abstractions and I am concerned with line, form and embedded space and memory. The goddesses in the mythology had to use their memory to recite poetry because books according to the myths didn’t exist. In historical terms "portrait paintings" for the most part have been done from life. Remembrance was something I wanted to do by gestural association.  I moved away from Miami 5 months ago and I nearly started the portraits when I left. I am painting each personality based from memory and composing the canvas in visual verses of how each goddess/female made me feel whether intellectually, in social terms, friendship or sexually. The muses are memory intensified. I feel that I have been able to commune this more then ever, the sheer deficiency and applying some road map of gloominess to light by emotion and memory. - Kiki Valdes

Calliope was the muse of epic poetry.

Clio was the muse of history.

Erato was the muse of love poetry.

Euterpe was the muse of music.

Melpomene was the muse of tragedy.

Polyhymnia was the muse of sacred poetry.

Terpsichore was the muse of dance.

Thalia was the muse of comedy.

Urania was the muse of astronomy.

"Valerie De Leon - Urania"

"Cat Alisa Dove - Euterpe"

NEW PAINTINGS/ KIKI VALDES

KIKI VALDES

Here are some pictures from my solo show I had over the summer at the Wynwood Exhibition Center. The canvas's that were shown were paintings I created in nightclubs right after I moved back to Miami from attending college at the Maryland Institute, College of Art.

I did the paintings with no intention of exhibiting them anytime soon. Since I thought the work would make more sense in the long term. But, I got to show them and I got mixed feelings which is what I was expecting. I was a little nervious to show them since it is not my current direction and people often misunderstand the context of where can artist can go. I, for one explore an area and let it go - then move on to the next journey.

LAST SUMMER

BACK IN THE CLUB DAY'S EXHIBIT