Alfred Quiroz

About Alfred Quiroz

Born on May 9, 1944 in Tucson, AZ. Upon graduation from High School in 1963, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, served in Vietnam, 1964-65 & 1966. Completed active duty as an Assistant Navigator (E-5) and received an Honorable Discharge in 1967.

Accepted at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1968. Mentored by Peter Saul, Wally Hedrick, Jeremy Anderson, and Sam Tchkalien. Received two in-house scholarships in 1970 & 1971 and was honored with an early graduation in 1971 BFA Painting.

In 1973 was accepted to the R.I. School of Design, graduated with an MAT in Art Education, in 1974. Taught at two alternative high schools, both private and public and worked for the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts as a Visual Arts Specialist. Active artist in the Providence art scene, he founded and directed two galleries. 1978-79, he was hired as the Project Coordinator for an ESAA federal grant in the Central Falls, R.I. school district.

In 1979, moved back to Tucson to re-establish his studio and base of operations. In 1982, was accepted into the University of Arizona MFA Painting Program, graduated in 1984. Mentored by Robert Colescott, James G. Davis and Bruce McGrew

In 1985-89, he was selected into the Artist-in-Education Program for the Arizona Commission on the Arts and was a member of the Dinnerware Artist Cooperative in Tucson in that interim. Travelled extensively throughout the state as part of the A.I.E. Program.

In 1988, received the Arizona Artist Award ($25,000) from the Tucson Community Foundation, one of five finalists. 1989, the University of Arizona hired him as an Assistant Professor. Appointed Area Director of Painting, 1993-1995, 1997-2003, 2004-2005 and was the 2D Chair until 2017. In 1995 his work was included in the publication “Redefining American History Painting”, Cambridge University Press. Received Clinton King Purchase Award at Museum of Fine Arts of Santa Fe, 1996. Applied for and received a sabbatical in 1996. Invited to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico to conduct a mural workshop with members of Grupo Maya. In May 1998, was invited to the Academy of Art and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia as a guest professor to establish an exchange program. In July of 1999, participated in Vision 21 Art Exchange Program, Legends of China Foundation, Beijing, China. In November of 1999, had first international solo exhibition at Gallery B.A.I. in Barcelona, Spain. His work was selected for inclusion for the publication, “George Washington: American Symbol,” Hudson Hills Press, NY, 1999.

Invited to a Three-person Exhibition at Apex Curatorial Art Program, New York February–March 2000 reviewed in the NY Times, and received a Visual Arts Fellowship from Tucson/Pima Arts Council. Completed a 2-year term as elected Studio Co-Chair for the Art Dept. Studio Program at the University.

The Chicano Hispano Student Affairs honored him for Teaching Excellence & Exemplary Service to Students in 2001. In 2002 he was selected for inclusion in The St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists, and Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art.

In 2003 Professor Quiroz was awarded a one-year sabbatical. He was also awarded a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Grant as part of the Fulbright Border Program in Mexico, an Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts for a Collaboration Project, the Pat Mutterer Memorial Fund First Place Award at the 2003 Arizona Biennial, Tucson Museum of Art, and a Dean's Teaching Award from the College of Fine Arts.

During the full year Sabbatical, he completed a mural as part of his Fulbright project at the Universidad Tecnologica de Nogales in Sonora, Mexico and the Collaborative Artist Installation Project entitled “Parade of Humanity” was installed on the border wall in Nogales, Sonora with two artists from Nogales, Sonora. An Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts funded the project. At the end of his sabbatical 2004, he initiated the first studio classes for the UA School of Art at the Orvieto Institute in Orvieto, Italy. The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago commissioned me to create a piece for the “African Prescience in Mexico” traveling exhibition, 2006-2007. My piece was reviewed in the Washington Post w/color photo.

Spring of 2006, he was invited as a set designer for the Borderlands Theater production of “Conjunto.” In the Fall of 2006, he coordinated a student mural project at the Mars Lab for the Phoenix Mars Mission and was invited by NASA to watch the launch at Cape Canaveral. He was nominated and appointed a Faculty Fellow in 2007. His Border Milagro pieces were the subject of a chapter in the publication “Faith and Transformation,” Museum of New Mexico Press (2007). October of 2007, he was awarded the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Latino Artist Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2009, his photograph on vinyl (12’ X 60’), entitled “Invisible Wall” was installed on the Border wall in Nogales, Sonora Mexico. The Cultura Sonorese of Mexico funded the project.

He was awarded Sabbatical for the Spring 2010 to conduct a project about water usage in Tucson entitled “Bodies of Water.” He created nine “ocean charts” of local swimming pools along with sculptural mariner’s symbols that were floated in each pool.

2012, The University of Mexico UNAM, Mexico City DF reproduced his “Goddess” painting in the publication “En La Punta de La Lengua.” The same painting was reproduced on the cover of the book “Mama Dolly,” Norstedts Publishing, Stockholm, Sweden also in 2012.

In 2013 he exhibited in an invitational group show at Texas Tech University Museum (museum purchase) and a juried exhibition at East Tennessee State University.

In 2014 he exhibited in a juried exhibition at the Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University and two shows in Phoenix. He was awarded a People’s Choice and Critic’s Choice at the 30th Exotic Invitational Alwun House Gallery, Phoenix, AZ. The Milagro works were selected for inclusion for the publication “Up Against the Wall” University of Texas Press.

He was the recipient of the Omari-Tunkara Faculty Fellow of the Year Award for 2013-2014.

Professor Quiroz conducted a mural project in the Fall of 2014 for the OSIRIS-REx Space Mission with students from the School of Art. It was completed in December 2014. He was also commissioned by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago to create a painting for a group invitational exhibition, “House On Mango Street: Artists Interpret Community.” In 2015, he was nominated for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Program. In the Spring of 2016, Professor Quiroz was awarded the James Anthony Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching by the UA College of Fine Arts. Summer 2016, he was invited to exhibit at the Apexart Gallery “Fencing In Democracy” in New York City. He had a solo exhibition at the UA Museum of Art (Oct. 22nd- Jan 22, 2017). A catalogue was produced for the exhibition. A photo of the Border wall installation was included in the back cover of the publication “Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century” 2020. He was awarded Professor Emeritus status in 2018

Artist Statement

Alfred J. Quiroz

Professor of Emeritus

BFA San Francisco Art Institute 1971

MAT Rhode Island School of Design 1974

MFA University of Arizona 1984

Fulbright Scholar

My creative process is based on satire, whether it is about the socio-political world we live in or my own personal history. The work involves extensive research and relates to current events. I am also fascinated by the usage of the word “war”, such as the drug wars, border wars and the war on crime, terror, etc. All of this creates remarkable displays of jingoism, which in itself it becomes a satire. I see these events as visual “cartoons.”

My approach utilizes bright color, whether it be acrylic or oils, geometrical compositional elements based on the Golden Mean and very often these elements are distorted beyond the rectangular format. This method has allowed me to create larger than life paintings that can spill into a room. Humor is vital.

I have been working on a series on the U.S. Presidents since 1994. Intertwined with other minor series involving the politics of being considered a “minority.” My work is constantly evolving; I have recently begun a new series based on “classical” art.

My work has been reviewed in Art in America, N. Y. Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Artforum, Providence Journal, San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle.

National/International Exhibitions

• Alameda Museum, San Antonio TX

• Aljira Art Center, NJ

• Anacostia Community Museum (Smithsonian), Washington D.C.

• Apex Art Curatorial Program, New York City

• California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA

• Centro Cultural, Tijuana, Mexico

• Centro Cultural de la Raza, San Diego, CA

• Coconino Center for the Arts, Flagstaff, AZ

• Diverseworks, Houston, TX

•Donna Beam Fine Arts Gallery, UNLV, Las Vegas, NV

• East Tennessee State University, (Slocumb Gallery) Johnson, TN

• El Paso Museum of Art, TX

• Exconvento Betlemita, Vera Cruz, Mexico

• Ft Wayne Museum of Art, IN

• Galeria Mesta Bratislavy, Bratislava, Slovakia

• Galeria M.A. Bazovskeho, Trencin, Slovakia

• Gallery NAGA, Boston, MA

• Gallery of Contemporary Art, Colorado Springs, CO

• Gorman Museum University of California at Davis, CA

• Grunwald Gallery of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

• Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman College, Orange, CA

• Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ

• Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, TX

• Monroe Community College (Burris Gallery) Rochester, NY

• Museo de Arte del Estado, Orizaba, Vera Cruz, Mexico

• Museo de la Historia Mexicana, Monterrey, Mexico

• Museum of Fine Arts of New Mexico, Santa Fe, NM

• Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX

• Mexican Museum, San Francisco, CA

• Museum of Contemporary Art, Ft. Collins, CO

• Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA

• National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, NM

• Nelson Fine Arts Center, AZ State University Museum, Tempe, AZ

• Neuberger Museum, SUNY, Purchase, NY

• Northern Arizona University Art Museum, Flagstaff, AZ

• Oakland Museum of Art, CA

• Ohio State University at Newark, NJ

• Plains Museum, Moorhead, MN

• Promega Gallery, Madison WI

• Roswell Museum and Art Center, NM,

• Sam Houston State University, TX

• San Antonio Museum of Art, TX

• San Francisco Art Institute, CA

• San Jose Museum of Art, CA

• Scottsdale Center for the Arts, AZ

• SOMAR Gallery in San Francisco, CA

• S.P.A.R.C. Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

• Statna Galeria, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

• Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA

•Texas Tech Museum, Lubbock, TX

• The African Museum of Philadelphia, PA

• Tucson Museum of Art,

• University of Arizona Museum of Art

• University of Texas, El Paso

• Washington Project for the Arts, (D.C.),

• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

Awards

• Selected for inclusion in the Tucson High School Hall of Fame, 2020

• Awarded Professor Emeritus of Art, 2018

• James B. Anthony Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching 2015-16

• Mikelle Smith Omari-Tunkara Faculty Fellow Award, UA Student Affairs 2013-2014

• LULAC Latino Artist Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007

• First Place Award, Pat Mutterer Memorial Fund, AZ. Biennial (Tucson Museum of Art) 2003

• Awarded Fulbright-Garcia Robles Grant, Mexico: Fulbright Border Program Award 2003

• Awarded Artist Project Grant, AZ Commission on the Arts, 2003

• Dean's Teaching Award, College of Fine Arts, UA, 2003

• Selected for inclusion: Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art, Bilingual Press, Tempe, AZ, 2002

• Recipient of 2001-2002 Fine Arts Research & Professional Development Incentive Grant, UA

• Recipient of Grant, College of Fine Arts Dean's Fund for Excellence, to attend College Art

Association Conference, Philadelphia, UA, 2002

• Selected for inclusion, St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists, 2002

• Honored for Teaching Excellence & Exemplary Service to Students Chicano Hispano Student

Affairs, University of Arizona, 2001

• College Art Association Nominating Committee, (National election) March. 2001-2002

• Visual Arts Fellowship, Tucson-Pima Arts Council, 1996 & 2000

• Juror’s Recognition, 1997 AZ Biennial, Tucson Museum of Art

• Community Service Award, 1996, Pima County, AZ

• Clinton King Purchase Award 1996 Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM

• Artist in Residence, Partners of the Americas: Oaxaca, Mexico, 1995

• Excellence in Teaching Award, UA 1995

• Incentive & Small Grant Awards, UA 1995

• Visual Arts Fellowship AZ Commission on the Arts 1989 and1995

• Materials Grant (Phoenix Art Museum) 1992

• Incentive Grant, UA 1992

• New Forms Regional Initiative Grant (Diverseworks,) Houston, TX 1991,

• Arizona Arts Award Fellowship 1988

• Best of Show AZ. Biennial (Tucson Museum of Art) 1986

• Celebration Artist Grant, (NEA) 1977

Articles

Arizona Daily Wildcat 2003 - Exhibit Looks Back on Professor's Work

Videos

Early Work/Barrio

Presidential Collection

Pool/Sea Series

Faculty Drawings - Pen & Ink

Border Series

Border Mural

Videos

Early Work/Barrio

Las Dilemas del Barrio Millville - Tucson, AZ - 1954 , acrylic on panel, 55" x 120" (commissioned by National Museum of Mexican Art-Chicago)

God's Calf - Barrio Millville Vision, charcoal on paper

El Visionario - oil on canvas

Felix Quiroz c 1979

#22 of the Past Life Series - One of Villa's Leaders (Portrait of Phillip R. Segura and his daughter, Becky)

Presidential Collection

TJ & Sally 1993 Litho – print 3 / 5 11" X 15"

This was an initial idea I had after reading the novel, “Sally Hemings” by Barbara Chase-Riboud. I began extensive research. In one of the tomes I read it was suggested that Sally was an intelligent individual, and she may have helped Jefferson with his draft of the Declaration of Independence. All this is conjecture, but it was lurid in my mind.

George Washington Inspects The Hemp Crop 1994 Acrylic on mahogany panel with astroturf and plastic plant 90" X 86" X 18" Private Collection

At the height of the 1976 Bicentennial I was living in Providence, RI and was reading a book on Washington the Farmer and discovered that he grew hemp. He had clearly marked the outline as to where it would be planted at Mount Vernon amongst the apple and peach trees. Hemp was the all-around product, paper, fabric and rope. I always wondered about pirates smoking a “plug of rope.” The 1970s was also the height of the so called “Drug Wars” or the “War on Drugs.” The painting had to have that Warner Bros. cartoon Americana look, like a Grant Wood landscape. My research also provided me information about George’s teeth, which were not wooden but made from walrus tusk. So I had to give him a “toothy” grin. I wanted him to spill out into the space of the flat landscape. The piece forms the outline of his face. There are some obvious puns.

Thomas Jefferson Sows The Seeds 1995 Oil on canvas 72" X 48"

Jefferson is considered the one who introduced hemp as a staple crop. There were profits to be made in the sailing industry. I had in mind a romance novel cover. I envisioned Jefferson as a multi-tasker. In my painting he plants hemp seeds as he bounces a lusty Sally on his knee. Both are somewhat prescient in their thinking. I correctly depicted Monticello from the rear. A sort of acknowledgment of the usage of the term: “Please use the back door” which is either a class or racial order/suggestion.

“He depicted Hemings with a dark complexion and caricature-like physical attributes. Jefferson, as the painting suggests, sowed more than one type of seed.”

—Dr. Peter S. Briggs, Helen DeVitt Jones Curator of Art, Museum of Texas Tech University

Muneefist Destiny 1996 Mixed media on mahogany panel 108" X 156"

The outline of the piece is the map of what was once Mexico. Presi- dent Polk initiated the War with Mexico by moving the U.S. Border south from the Rio Nueces to the now Rio Grande without informing Mexico. This caused an altercation and the War to Take-Away the Land began. The aim was to gain the Western ports to trade with East. Sam Houston proclaimed that all non-whites in the US at that time should all be killed. It was a common thought that these pioneers who were given the land by Mexico in the first place felt they were the “chosen people” and therefore privileged. In my research I was surprised that one author stated that the term “Anglo-Saxon” was made up to create a sense of racial purity, and may have been used by the early Pilgrims. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo designated that the Mexican landowners, “Californios” would keep their land. When gold was discovered in 1849, the state of California revoked the Treaty claiming it did not have to recognize international treaties and hence the landowners lost their property. There was a point in that period when there was the discussion of what to do with all the Mexicans living in the Southwest. The idea of Mexican reservations was considered like the Native American reservations of today.

I utilized many of the jingoistic slogans of that period.

“In what amounts to a visual textbook in the shape of the U.S., Quiróz strips the gloss from our country’s self-justifying history to tell of the greed and violence that put the white man in power. The settling of the West is a far more unsettling story than most history lessons attest, and Quiróz’s wildly clever work educates as it entertains, and does both lavishly.”

Firtht and Wertht 2000 Oil on canvas 82" X 67"

In the 2000 election Pat Buchanan ran for the office of President. Concurrently, there was also contention about the gay “Log Cabin” component of the GOP party. The candidate Buchanan was a religious right conservative and the “Log Cabin” contingent was acknowledging that our 15th President James Buchanan was the first gay President. In my research I encountered political caricatures of several presi- dents in dresses for being “wusses” about foreign policy in their day. I appropriated the image of Buchanan in a dress and used the standard pose for presidential portraits of that period. In my composition, circles of influence circulate around him as he devours the meat that is Mexico. I purposely used “lisp” phonetics to spell out “First and Worst” president as Buchanan was described in 2000. He was also the first bachelor president. His association with William R. King, Vice-President under Franklin Pierce, led to the Congress gossiping. Whenever they entered the House together, it was stated among the politicians, “Here comes Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan…” William R. King was known as “Miss Nancy,” a term still used today in Australia to denote a gay man. As Secretary of State, Buchanan was instrumental in the policies of the War with Mexico to gain Western ports, hence my reference to San Francisco. Buchanan was also instrumental in intervening in a Supreme Court case involving slaves as free-men in Wisconsin. There was a common saying at that time that slaves actually “loved picking cotton.”

Nix-On Hell 2002, acrylic on panel

The rough sketches are diagrams for the placement of the characters in Nixon’s terms as president and the color layout of the background. I sometimes include notes of what I have discovered as part of my research.

I envisioned Nixon paying for his “sins” in hell standing on a hot plate as his penis penetrates the Constitution, his world of media spins as a constant reminder from b/w TV images to color to show the transition of time as his diarrheal attack turns into spools of tapes. His head is multi-faced for the sneaky person that he was. His hands are on springs so that can “wave” at us from hell. The composition is loosely based on Tibetan tantra paintings depicting gods of destruction.

“The paintings of Alfred J. Quiróz are fiesta-bright, with the polemical bite of the Chicano mural tradition.”

—Holland Cotter, The New York Times

Bushwhacked 2003 Acrylic on wood with springs 24" X 30" X 3.5"

As I sketched the initial idea, I decided I wanted to make a shadow- box type piece.

I wanted to depict GWB as the coke-head president who was literally handed the presidency by the Supreme Court. I used the archaic image of a butcher’s thumb on the scales of justice as a visual al- legory. The state of Florida is being handed to him on a platter, as a cooked steak by an obviously Black servant (i.e. Black votes being cast out or not counted in Florida). To me this was a coup d’état. Only twice in the history of the U.S. has the Supreme Court intervened in a Presidential election. I used a spring to mount Bush’s head so that it “bobbled.” Lines of coke (glitter) are on his desk and he holds a rolled bill. The Yale Skull & Crossbones character hands him the Presidential Seal with its price tag still attached. I initially painted the piece in chromatic values and then used a grisaille technique to complete the piece. I was reversing the standard method of painting

“He represents another viewpoint of someone who has been in war. It is important to go in and look at work that is more controversial because the media is so one sided about the present administration. It is terribly interesting with the mix of personal experience and his understanding of how propaganda works in American society. He tells this story about how he waited and waited to go to Vietnam and there was no announcement, no one thought they would go and then all of the sudden they went and the media were there and it was totally orchestrated. Just because the media says something does not mean it’s true.”

—Paul Ivey, Professor of Art History, The University of Arizona

Back To Normalcy 2005 - 06 Acrylic on birch panel 84" X 108"

The rough sketches were to determine construction and the composition of the piece. I was constantly experimenting with the composition and I finally decided on one that was totally different as evidenced by the final composition. I created this piece at a time when moral issues were being discussed by the Far Right establishment of this country. I am always amazed that these individuals do not look at the history of this country in regard to moral issues. Warren Harding is a prime example of a presidency gone bad. He even created the word “Normalcy” to denote a return to a calm country. He had an affair with a young lady and at one point had a closet adjacent to the Oval Office enlarged so that he could have his trysts there. She eventually became pregnant and had Warren’s child. Another affair he had was with a married woman. The Republican Party sent her and her husband on a paid world tour during an election year to avoid any scandal. The Teapot Dome scandal was the tipping point of his Presidency. It is rumored that he died of poisoning by his wife, a very jealous woman. In the painting Harding’s head is composed of sexual activity, like the JFK piece. His nose is a penis. It is rumored that JFK had sex in that same cloakroom that Harding had enlarged for his trysts.

FDR 2008 Oil on birch panel 108" X 144" X 4"

This painting had to be big. My initial sketches were rendered quickly. The first sketch is based on the usage of 4' X 8' wood panels to plan the construction. In the second work sketch, I have refined the idea, but there are still areas that I was thinking about. I knew I wanted the nuclear symbol superimposed like Diego Rivera’s famous mural in Detroit. At this point the general outline of the entire painting is somewhat finalized.

FDR was the first and only handicapped president. This fact was hidden from the general public. They used steel braces to hold him in a standing position to a podium. I wanted him to look beefed-up riding a tank over Fascism with the two women he had affairs with on his lap while he sipped his martini. Churchill, Stalin and FDR enjoyed the wonders of alcohol. The nude women in the factories are all pin-ups.

WWII gave us the pin-up, it was on walls, sides of airplanes etc. The sexy lady awaits your return from the War. The atom symbol became an interjection of space as an inset. My image of Pearl Harbor with the WWI (1914-18) ships shaped like ducks awaiting the “Call to War.” The Dutch and British warned the U.S.A. about the impending attack on Hawaii. How to increase the economy? Start a war somewhere far away. The advent of cartoon superheroes battling Nazis and “dirty Japs” was a new escape for the kids on the home front. What has always amazed me about WWII was the massive genocide that it was. But without Germany’s super weapons and the scientists who built them, we would not have had NASA.

‘F’Ulna Ah Wuz Why-T 2011, Acrylic on birch panel 36" X 24"

I had to create a “companion” piece for the Ge-oge piece. I use phonetics in my titles as colloquial jargon. It is close to the way you are taught to annunciate words in the military. I wondered if Obama would be treated differently if he was a “white” person. Then to be blamed for the fiasco the Bush/Cheney left with palettes of money disappearing in Iraq. We need to realize the fiasco that is current is about the hubris of a few individuals that led to a costly loss in human lives, yet profitable for certain corporations. The shape of the piece is very cloud-like filled with floating money, inflated.

“Quiróz’s use of cartoonish caricatures comes from his early attraction to the drawings in Mad Magazine. However, his insatiable appetite for history inspires his subject matter. He works in series, so that he may tackle key subjects from many different angles.”

—Kim Green, Arizona Alumnus Magazine