Born in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, Julio Valdez relocated to New York in1993. Working between pluri-cultural sensibilities, Valdez infuses his work with multi-layered imagery as a response to the shifting cultural and social influences in his life. A painter, printmaker and mixed media artist whose work has been exhibited internationally, he has received numerous prestigious international awards, including an Artist-in-Residence Fellowship at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York City in1997-98, the Silver Palette for Painting at the XXXeme Festival International de la Peinture, Cagnes-sur-Mer, France in 1998, the Grand Prize at the XVII E. Leon Jimenes Biennial, the Dominican Republic in 2000, and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, 2003, among others.