Leo Valledor | 8-bridges

Eight bridges connect the San Francisco Bay, so it is an apt name for a gallery platform that brings the Bay Area art world together.

Our mission is to maintain a vibrant gallery scene, despite restrictions on travel, celebrations and other larger gatherings. We want to support our artists by informing and entertaining curators, collectors and critics with potent online exhibitions of their work.

On the first Thursday of every month, we will launch 8 shows of artists relevant to the Bay Area. They may be working in this place, long considered an epicenter of change, or deeply engaged in the conversations the Bay Area holds dear, whether it’s related to technology, the environment, social justice or sexual identity, to name a few. In addition, each month will highlight the crucial work of a Bay Area non-profit arts organization.

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Founding Committee

Claudia Altman-Siegel, Kelly Huang, Sophia Kinell, Micki Meng, Daphne Palmer, Ratio 3, Sarah Wendell Sherrill, Jessica Silverman, and Elizabeth Sullivan

Ambassador Committee

Sayre Batton & Maja Thomas, Joachim & Nancy Bechtle, Matt Bernstein, Sabrina Buell, Wayee Chu & Ethan Beard, Natasha Boas, Douglas Durkin, Carla Emil, Matt & Jessica Farron, Lauren Ford, Ali Gass, Stanlee Gatti, Brook Hartzell & Tad Freese, Pamela & David Hornik, Katie & Matt Paige, Putter Pence, Becca Prowda & Daniel Lurie, Deborah Rappaport, Komal Shah & Gaurav Garg, Laura Sweeney, The Battery, Robin Wright, Sonya Yu & Zack Lara

Sponsors

Lobus, The Space Program

Brian Gross Fine Art

Leo Valledor

Brian Gross Fine Art is pleased to present the works of Leo Valledor (1936-1989) as part of 8-Bridges’ celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. An important American painter of Filipino heritage, Leo Valledor grew up in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, where he was influenced by its’ jazz and poetry scene. In the 1950s, he attended the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute), exhibited his paintings at 6 Gallery, and later showed at the seminal Dilexi Gallery. In 1961, he moved to New York, where he was a founding member of the historic Park Place Gallery and began painting Hard-edge abstract paintings on shaped canvases.

Among the works featured here, Desire is from Valledor’s East-West Series, an important body of work he made immediately after his return to San Francisco in 1968. The East-West works represent a synthesis of Hard-edge and Abstract Expressionist techniques. Aslantis, TGIF, and Pacificon reveal Valledor’s later evolution to dividing the interiors of his flatly painted, shaped canvas compositions into complex colorful geometries that create a sense of perceptual depth within each work.