Curator Talk: “José María Velasco: A View of Mexico”
Join us for a conversation about José María Velasco (1840–1912), one of the greatest 19th-century landscape painters in the Americas.
The event celebrates the opening of “José María Velasco: A View of Mexico,” organized by Mia and the National Gallery, London. Valéria Piccoli, Mia’s Ken and Linda Cutler Chair of the Arts of the Americas and Curator of Latin American Art, will be joined by Dexter Dalwood and Daniel Sobrino Ralston, curators of the exhibition in London. Together they’ll examine Velasco’s artistic practice, particularly his impressive panoramic views of the Valley of Mexico—home of modern-day Mexico City. Painted with exquisite detail, his works honor both the country’s rich historical heritage and the rapid modernization it underwent in the late 1800s.
Free tickets available August 28.
Dexter Dalwood’s paintings and prints are collages of visual imagery from art history, personal memory, and political and cultural events from the past. His work reinterprets the genre of history painting for a contemporary audience. His work is held in various public collections including the British Council, London; Tate, London; Saatchi Gallery, London; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Hamburger Bahnhof-Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; Trevi Flash Museum of Contemporary Art, Trevi; Champagne-Ardennes, Reims; and Centre Pasquart, Biel, Switzerland.
Daniel Sobrino Ralston is the CEEH Associate Curator of Spanish Paintings at the National Gallery, London. He’s lectured and published widely on Spanish art from the 17th and 19th centuries, contributing to recent exhibition catalogues at the Fundación MAPFRE, Raimundo de Madrazo (2025); the Gallerie d’Italia, Velázquez. Un segno grandioso (2024); the National Gallery, After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art (2023); and the Kimbell Art Museum, Murillo: From Heaven to Earth (2022). He studied art history at the University of British Columbia (BA) and Columbia University (MA, PhD).
Dalwood and Ralston were co-curators of the exhibition “José María Velasco: A View of Mexico,” featured at the National Gallery, London, from March to July 2025.