Silverlens New York is pleased to participate in the 2024 edition of  Frieze New York with a solo booth by Leo Valledor (b. 1936 - d. 1989, San Francisco, USA).  Silverlens will display four paintings along with two never-before-seen drawings crafted during the final decade of Valledor’s career, from 1980 through 1982, illustrating the profound depth of his artistic exploration which spanned decades and contributed significantly to the advancement of Minimalism.

Widely acknowledged as one of the most influential Filipino American artists, Valledor played a pivotal role in the development of his community’s burgeoning art scene in the 1960s while establishing a life-long artistic practice later recognized to have expanded the lexicon of American Modernism. The Frieze New York presentation coincides with the beginning of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and honors Valledor as an underrecognized Asian American voice. 

As an orphaned teenager in San Francisco in 1955, Valledor opened his first solo show at The Six Gallery, where Allen Ginsberg performed “Howl” for the first time later that same year. Valledor moved to New York in 1961 to become a founding member of the trailblazing artist-led collective, The Park Place Group. Via its West Broadway exhibition space the Group gave a platform to numerous artists, including Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, and Robert Smithson, which established downtown Manhattan as a vibrant art world locus.  

Valledor’s work embraces some principles of precise color-field minimalism but is unique through his distinct use of shape and space. Present in his works are industrial illusions which evoke newly developed high-speed transport with vibrant hues reminiscent of advertising and neon signage. His curved canvases, which juxtapose the materiality of the painting against the flatness of its surface, create a palpable sense of volume within the pictorial space. 

These early 1980s artworks represent the culmination of a decades-long exploration of shaped canvases and geometric abstraction, showcasing Valledor’s ability to manipulate sensory perception and blur the boundaries between art, design, and the sublime. For Frieze, two never-before-seen studies corresponding to artworks on display, “Pow Wow Now” and “Straight & Still,” will shed further light on Valledor’s process. 

Initially recognized as a prodigious talent during his time at the California School of Fine Arts, Valledor was singled out by figures like Lucy Lippard and Donald Judd as a standout figure of the Park Place movement. 

Leo Valledor’s presentation at Frieze New York coincides with Keka Enriquez: Odds and Ends at Silverlens New York. This intimate exhibition, held in the gallery’s viewing room, marks the celebrated Filipino American painter’s return to the art world after 20 years. Though born in Manila, Enriquez has lived in San Francisco since 1998, the same city in which Valledor was born and began his artistic career. The simultaneous showings of these two Filipino American artists highlights the legacy of Asian diasporic art and community in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Frieze New York will run from May 1 to 5, 2024, at The Shed. 

Leo Valledor (b. 1936 - d. 1989, San Francisco, USA) was a San Francisco-born, New York-based abstractionist and founding member of downtown Manhattan’s trailblazing Park Place Gallery, an artist collective and exhibition venue founded by ten emerging artists, many of whom are now recognized as among the most influential Modernists in American history. 

Valledor's strong understanding of color optics, geometric planes and dimensional illusion combined with shaped canvases to engage the viewing space in powerful ways. Influenced by luminaries such as Ellsworth Kelly and Frank Stella, Valledor's work resonated with the color-field and minimalist aesthetics, distinguished by his inventive manipulation of space, shape, and color.  

Valledor's artistic legacy continues to reverberate through collections nationwide, with works in prominent collections including The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Leo Valledor’s work has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.