Francisco Valverde was born and raised in Cuernavaca, Mexico, of a Cuban father and Mexican mother.

Early in his career, he was known for his work in contemporary figurative painting.

While teaching traditional techniques and large-format painting at Morelense Center for the Arts (Centro Morelense de las Artes), Francisco became inspired by his students’ search for their individual expression, which lead to his own quest for a new artistic practice.

Francisco began working on large canvases, using bottle dispensers filled with colorful synthetic materials instead of traditional paints and brushes. His goal was to re-create the essential element within drawing and painting: the line. The resulting lines were imperfect and denied the traditional representative characteristic of a line, or what Francisco describes as “righteousness.” These paintings formed a rhythmic structure in which a certain order was realized. This initiated his new direction.

Francisco’s current work utilizes plastic materials to build complexity. These compositions imply a story by utilizing the power of line, direction, suggestive backgrounds, mysterious forms, and variety of depths.

Obsession and freedom, as Francisco describes, comprise his current body of work: the obsession with a daily routine, and the freedom, that retains his experimentation as a child drawing and scribbling on a piece of paper for the very first time.

He recognizes that, perhaps, smooth finishes of his paintings conserve a certain commitment to tradition.

For the artist, these paintings also reminiscent of the colorful, shiny candies he used to eat as a child at local fairs.

Passionate about public and urban art, Francisco recently participated in The Street Is Yours project in the State of Mexico. And, in 2015, the artist produced an urban intervention at the “SMART Art festival 2015” in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. In 2020 the Fort Wayne Museum of Art presented a solo exhibition of his works.

Francisco Valverde obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the University Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.