- 2 days ago

Valerie Wilcox

Valerie Wilcox is a mixed media artist who has exhibited extensively in California and internationally in Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden. Recent solo exhibitions include features at Launch LA Gallery and Billis Williams Gallery in Los Angeles. Notable group shows include inclusion at 515 Gallery in Los Angeles, ARB Gallery in the United Kingdom, and the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, California. Valerie has been published by notable publications such as the New York Times, LA Weekly, and Huffington Post. Throughout her career, she has participated in over 160 exhibitions to date and her works remain in private and corporate collections around the world.

The mixed media works can be described as three-dimensional paintings often constructed in a way similar to relief sculptures. Ranging from organic shapes, squiggly lines, asymmetrical patterns, stripes, and strips, Valerie’s works are often unpredictable. Titles in the works suggest conceptual implications with forms based on solid ideas rather than non-objective execution. Ranging from neutral tones, to bright colors, and earth hues, her color palette remains varied and based on the structure of the works. For example, Valerie’s more angular pieces tend to convey neutral and earth tones while her more organic and playful pieces portray bright and neon colors.

Consistently asymmetrical, Valerie’s unpredictable nature remains her greatest strength as each piece remains quite unique from another with dissimilar forms. The often abstract organic shapes seem to hint at life with their sensual curvature similar to the curving torso of a figure. Nuanced yet exciting, her pieces appear to be improvised rather than planned in advance as she cuts, alters, shapes, and paints obtained objects such as scrapped wood or pieces of carpet. Despite the asymmetrical and unpredictable nature of her work, Valerie’s pieces tend to portray a sense of balance, rather than chaos, with various shapes and linearity anchoring disproportionate areas on opposite sides.

Reconfigured May (pictured above) contains a curious color palette with neutral purple and blacks and pale yellows reminiscent of the colors of a jester. The piece contains vertical angular anchors on opposite ends offering a sense of balance for the asymmetrical curved shapes throughout. Whites are strategically placed in three corner pockets of the piece, also behaving like an anchor. Reconfigured May remains a striking piece offering great balance and sense of excitement in unusual and well-played color application.

Valerie Wilcox creates fascinating artworks which communicate sensibilities questioning unfamiliar design principles. Her unique shapes and painted forms offer so much unpredictability and improvisation in a way which will never leave the viewer bored of her work. She provokes emotional impulses through jagged shapes, linearity, and a sense of organic curvature all in play with each other in harmonious compositions. Conveying grittiness, flatness, and balance all at once, Valerie’s mixed media works enhance sensory stimulation through a guided hand not afraid to experiment and evolve into unseen territory in regards to contemporary design principles and aesthetics.