Great Profile of Victor Maldonado

The power of Maldonado’s voice is that it speaks to the fight in all of us.

On the occasion of his solo exhibition, Old Ways, currently on view at Froelick Gallery, Visual Art Source profiles Victor Maldonado, Assistant Professor and Inclusion Specialist at PNCA. In the piece, the writer explores the roots of Maldonado's art practice, tracing themes to his childhood in a family of migrant workers. Maldonado's heritage and experience as an artist of color feeds his work and his drive to make work. “I’ve done a lot of grappling, without role models and feeling very alone,” Maldonado says.

The piece goes on: 

Maldonado has turned his lack of mentorship into a mandate to provide mentorship for his students at Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA), where in addition to teaching he also serves as inclusions specialist and assistant dean. (In passing he says, 'I wasn’t supposed to be an assistant dean. I was supposed to be in prison or dead from working in the fields.') And he has turned his feeling of isolation into art-based outreach.

Maldonado received his BFA in Painting and Drawing from the California College of Art (2000) and his MFA in Painting and Drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2005) and his work has most recently been acquired by the Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX.

Visit Old Ways at Froelick Gallery just a few blocks from PNCA. 

Read the profile.