Profiles in Color: The Paintings of Andres Valencia is a focused solo presentation by the celebrated young painter, which was on view July 16–19, 2026 at Free Parking 16 Morton Street, New York.
The installation presented two dozen three‑quarter‑profile portraits—including the playful Dual, an eye‑popping work set against a brilliant red ground—that bring a 21st‑century sizzle to the stately history of portraiture. Exhibition hours were 12:00 AM–6:00 PM, Thursday, July 16 through Sunday, July 19.
Valencia’s painterly universe pairs bold color and fractured anatomy with playful distortion and sharp line to produce images that feel both indebted to art history and definitely new. This New York presentation spans early painted‑book portraits through recent paintings, drawings, sculptures and animation videos, and included a short making‑of video showing Andres creating preparatory drawings on blank canvases. The installation also displayed inspirational 3D figures that inform his process: handmade MMA figures, sculptures of renowned artists and selections from his personal collection of historical puppets rescued from street‑thrift and antique markets.
Drawing on a laser‑focused fascination with 1950s music culture, contemporary MMA and boxing and visual‑art precedents rooted in his family’s Mexican heritage and twentieth‑century master painters, Valencia produces large, dramatic, vividly colored figurative work. Born in 2011 and based in California, he has been painting since early childhood and often works on a step ladder to produce large‑scale canvases using oil sticks, oil and acrylic.
New York audiences were welcomed by live presentations featuring Andres Valencia alongside his parents, Elsa and Guadalupe, who will discuss the role art‑making has played in their lives.
