Luis Valsoto
Luis Valsoto was born in Mexico City in 1939 and has resided in Guadalajara, Jalisco, since the late 1960s, the city where he developed much of his artistic career. He began studying architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), but abandoned his studies to dedicate himself fully to painting, being largely self-taught. In 1968, he held his first solo exhibition and has maintained a steady output ever since, characterized by an intimate perspective on everyday scenes.
His pictorial work—including oil paintings, prints, sculptures, and drawings—addresses simple yet symbolically rich themes, such as domestic animals (dogs, cats, roosters), female figures, everyday objects, and scenes from his immediate surroundings. He has described himself as a “plastic poet,” committed to representing the trivial and the domestic through a profoundly figurative and neo-expressionist aesthetic. Echoes of folk art are frequently found in his compositions, as well as influences from artists such as Marc Chagall, Balthus, Hieronymus Bosch, and Diego Velázquez.
Throughout his career he has received important recognitions, such as the Mexican Salon of Plastic Arts Award in 1975, first place in the Jalisco October Salon in 1980, and the commemorative medal of the Jalisco Chamber of Commerce in 1995. His work has been exhibited in multiple spaces both nationally and internationally, including the Palace of Fine Arts (1990 and 1994), the Museum of the People of Guanajuato, the Regional Museum of Guadalajara and in cities such as San Francisco, Boston, Tucson, Dominican Republic, Australia and South Korea.
In addition to his artistic career, Valsoto has been a prominent mentor to new generations of artists. He served as director of the Jalisco Institute of Fine Arts from 1980 to 1983 and has taught for over three decades at various institutions, including the José Clemente Orozco Center for Artistic Education. In 1977, he founded the group "Los Vitalistas" with Jorge Alzaga, Gregorio González, and Alejandro Colunga, with the aim of preserving the cultural roots of Mexican art in the face of foreign trends such as abstraction.
Among his most important exhibitions are his retrospective 1967-1987 at the Foro de Arte y Cultura in Guadalajara, his solo show at the Palacio de Bellas Artes (1990), and a series of exhibitions in spaces such as the Britton Gallery in San Francisco, the Carlos Ashida Gallery in Guadalajara, and the Centro de Arte Moderno in Guadalajara. Despite having considered retiring from teaching, Valsoto affirms that he will continue painting until the end, as his work is an extension of his life and his vision of the world.
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