Alfred Quiroz

Alfred Quiroz (born May 9, 1944, in Tucson, Arizona) is an American artist known for his satirical paintings and drawings that examine injustice. He has also created political self-portraits, such as Opportunity Target (2008), and No Soy Chicano, Soy Aztlano (1998).

According to the artist, an early mentor advised him to paint what was on his mind. “Then that’s all it took,” Quiroz said. "It opened up the floodgates and everything I had in my head came out." His wife Marsha Quiroz notes: "Alfred is an avid history buff; he really loves it and what he tells his students is to read and research, leave no stone unturned when it comes to investigation."

His work has been shown in the Apex Gallery in New York, and in Slovakia, Mexico, Spain, and China. His work is also part of the collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson.

Early life and education
Alfred J. Quiroz was born in Tucson, Arizona, on May 9, 1944 and grew up in the Millville barrio. He attended Menlo Park and Borton Elementary, Safford Jr. High, and Tucson High School. He regularly decorated the halls of Tucson High School with themes relating to academics, athletics, dances, socials, and cultural festivities.

As a Navy Vietnam Veteran, he utilized the G.I. Bill to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1971 at the San Francisco Art Institute, and a Master of Arts in Teaching at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence in 1974. He completed his Master of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona in 1984.

Career
From 1985 to 1989, Quiroz taught art at schools in Tucson and throughout Arizona doing mural projects with children K-12.

In 1989, Quiroz was appointed to the University of Arizona as an Assistant Professor. Quiroz was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1993 and became a Full Professor in 1998. He is the first Mexican America to obtain full professor status in the Art Department. He retired in 2018 and was awarded Emeritus status.

In 2003 he had an exhibition "Alfred Quiroz: Razor's Edge: War, Ideology, Ecstasy" at the Contemporary Museum in Tucson. Margaret Regan, the critic for the Tucson Weekly said it was "Encyclopedically researched and painted in characteristic caricature, with leering cartoonish figures pushed to the edge of nightmare, the work howls against political evil." She also noted that the artist "meticulously researches history for its forgotten outrages, its glossed-over massacres and land seizures, and brings them to artistic light courtesy of crayon-bright colors." Following his service during the Vietnam War, Regan says "Demolishing patriotic myths has been the artist's job description ever since."

"Presidential Series," his exhibition at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in 2016-17, surveyed American history through portraits of presidents. According to curator Olivia Miller, "the dichotomy of dazzling colors and the energetic compositions coupled with scenes of debauchery, war, and hypocrisy is difficult, if not impossible for the viewer to reconcile."

As the artist notes in a statement: "My creative process is based on satire, whether it is about the socio-political world we live in or my own personal history. ... 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.'”

Works
Quiroz's major works include: Las Dilemas del Barrio Millville - Tucson, AZ - 1954, George Washington Inspects The Hemp Crop (1994), Thomas Jefferson Sows The Seeds (1995), Muneefist Destiny (1996), Firtht and Wertht (2000), Nix-On Hell (2002), Bushwhacked (2003), Back To Normalcy (2005 - 06), FDR (2008), and ‘F’Ulna Ah Wuz Why-T (2011).

In 1986, Quiroz created seven murals at the Connie Chambers Housing Project (La Reforma), with at-risk students.

His 24-feet-long painting "Novus Ordo" (1993) was described by the Tucson Weekly as "a map of the entire world, and crowded into the seething borders of its painted nations are depictions of every murderous injustice imaginable."

In 2004 Quiroz created large, aluminum sculptures on the Mexican side of the border wall that mimicked religious votive offerings.

In 2006, Quiroz provided direction for the Phoenix Mars Lander Science Operations Center mural, a 60’ by 20’ mural on the exterior wall of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory & Department of Planetary Sciences of the University of Arizona.

In 2006, Quiroz created work for the traveling exhibition African Presence in Mexico organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.

His work has been shown in the Apex Gallery in New York, and in Slovakia, Mexico, Spain, and China.

Quiroz's work in several mediums is featured on the Promega Art Showcase.

Museum Collections
Quiroz's work is part of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson, including the painting Columbus Introduces Eurocentric Philosophy to America. Six works, including a sculpture Aztec TV (2004), a drawing El Azteca Practicando para Su futuro de Modelo para Calendarios de Tortillerias (Aztec Practicing for his Future Role as a Model for Tortilleria Calendars) of 1992, and El Primero Mafioso de America (1991), a mixed media work on paper, are in the collection of the Tucson Museum of Art. The painting Opportunity Target (2008) is in the collection of the Texas Tech University Museum in Lubbock. Quiroz has a print and the painting  'F' Ulna Ah Wuz Why-T (2011) in the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

Awards and honors

 * 1986, Arizona Biennial Best of Show
 * 1996 Clinton King Purchase Award, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe
 * 1997, Arizona Biennial Juror’s Recognition
 * 2001, Chicano Hispano Student Affairs Teaching Excellence & Exemplary Service to Students Award
 * 2003, Arizona Biennial Pat Mutterer Memorial Fund First Place Award
 * 2003, Fulbright-García Robles Grant as part of the Fulbright Border Program in Mexico
 * 2007, LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens Latino Artist Lifetime Achievement Award
 * 2015, The University of Arizona College of Fine Arts James R. Anthony Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching
 * 2015 – 2016, University of Arizona College of Fine Arts James Anthony Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching
 * 2016, The University of Arizona Museum of Art published Presidential Series Paintings