Mary Valverde, Points + Curves, 2018. Bamboo blinds, acrylic paint, medium, cotton string. Courtesy of the artist.
Mary Valverde, Points + Curves, 2018. Bamboo blinds, acrylic paint, medium, cotton string. Courtesy of the artist.
Mary Valverde, Points + Curves, 2018. Bamboo blinds, acrylic paint, medium, cotton string. Courtesy of the artist.
Mary Valverde, Points + Curves, 2018. Bamboo blinds, acrylic paint, medium, cotton string. Courtesy of the artist.
Mary Valverde, Points + Curves, 2018. Bamboo blinds, acrylic paint, medium, cotton string. Courtesy of the artist.
Mary Valverde, Points + Curves, 2018. Bamboo blinds, acrylic paint, medium, cotton string. Courtesy of the artist.
Mary A. Valverde
I was interested in the concepts of space and time and how we interpret them physically and ephemerally. I came to appreciate bamboo for its flexibility and linear qualities, and paint on the bamboo blinds to mark breaks and dashes in dimensions. When the work is installed, they can shift and bend and create a variety of vantage points, perspectives, and forms. Together it can mimic mathematical diagrams, or points of measure depending on how the audience comes to it and reads it. This is part of my work overall, in which I create installations reminiscent of sacred spaces and material offerings. I often bring together various ephemeral material components that formulate a visual network based on arithmetic diagrams. The work becomes a chronicle, index, and archive of patterns, and an examination of ways in which they empower and adorn space, the body, and the psyche.
Can you expand on your use of bamboo? Can you expand on your use of bamboo? I try to use natural elements, forged or raw materials for their intrinsic qualities and cultural significance. Through the innate qualities of malleable and ephemeral materials (like ink, string, fabric, cotton, wire, oil, water, coffee, cocoa butter etc.) I try to examine the politics of production, exploitation, social roles, culture and tradition. Time and space are emphasized through marks and impressions in my drawings, photographs, installations and performances. Action and restraint, freedom and limitation, and attraction and resistance play out in all of my work. I try to maintain a sense of immediacy and directness by a fusion of process, material and the body. Working in series has forced a continuous focus and understanding of myself in relation to the act of making.
I am interested in the idea of maximum density and the infinite in space and within our own minds and bodies as well as how this is interpreted in different cultures and ideas of the divine. The intentional use of contrast—especially in works where the color black is used as an absorbing color and in its relationship to black holes and dark matter—illustrates this.
Mary A. Valverde (b. 1975, Elmhurst, Queens) received an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania (2012) and a BFA from the School of Visual Arts (1999). Valverde has exhibited her work at Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE (2018); MoCA North Miami, Miami, FL (2018); The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ (2014); Art Center South Florida, Miami Beach, FL (2013); Momenta Gallery, New York, NY (2010); Bronx River Art Center Bronx, NY (2010); Abrons Art Center, New York, NY (2010); Saltworks Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2009); Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2009); Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami, FL (2008); Cuchifritos Gallery, New York, NY (2008); El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY (2007); Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ (2007); The Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY (2006); Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ (2006); Rush Arts Gallery, New York, NY (2006); Tribes Gallery, New York, NY (2005); among others. Valverde has contributed to various projects through the BASE collective. Valverde teaches at Hunter College and has lectured at institutions including The Ford Foundation, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, F.I.T., and Long Island University's MFA departments. She was the 2011 MFA Lecturer at the ICA Philadelphia. Since 2015, Valverde has served as a Commissioner (Sculptor seat) of the Arts Commission/Public Design Commission of the City of New York. Valverde is the recipient of University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Design's Full Dean's Diversity Fellowship, and received the Artist Fellowship, Inc. Individual Artist Award (2010) and the Mayer Foundation Grant. Valverde was the Thomas Hunter Ceramic Artist in Residence (2014), artist in residence at Artist Alliance Residency (2007) and Aljira Center for Contemporary Art's Emerge Program (2006). She is based in Jackson Heights, Queens.
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