Falling Jaws, oil on gessoed linen, 39 1/2 x 47 1/4"






L'Intrus, oil on gessoed linen, 29 x 36 1/2"







Sirenes-de-Baghdad, oil on gessoed linen, 24 x 27"

Target, oil on gessoed linen, 16 1/2 x 16 1/2", framed
 
                                                                    

Vertigo (study), liquitex on canvas, 19 1/2 x 23 1/2"





B52, oil on gessoed linen, 39 1/2 x 47 1/4"

Valerie: Resume

b. 1954 Biloxi, Mississippi
lives and works in France

One person exhibitions
2205   NovArt Bordeaux                                                     
2204   Galerie Nataal, Arcachon                                         
2002   Galerie Nataal, Arcachon                                         
1995   Montreaux, Center for the Arts. Paris                        
1993   Grigny, Paris Center for the Arts                               
1990   Monmouth University Gallery, Long Branch, NJ          
1990   Hunter Gallery, New York, New York                         
1986   Monmouth University Gallery, Long Branch, NJ          

Selected group exhibitions
2006   PMW Gallery, Stamford, CT, The French Connection
1994   Montreaux, Center for the Arts. Paris Young Painters
1992   Grigny, Paris Center for the Arts Art for Outsiders
1992   Galerie de Cinq Points, NYC, Symbols d Erotic
1983   Studio 54, NYC. Shamans et Diables                   
1982   Mud Club, NYC Explosions                                 
1980   Huntsville City Gallery, Alabama, juried exhibition

Awards
1980   Prix de Huntsville for Fine Art 
1976   Prix de Susan Horowitz,
          juried by Hunter College faculty NYC
          Collection President’s of CUNY

Education
1983   M.F.A. Hunter College
          City University of New York Specialization: Painting
1977   B.F.A. Hunter College
          City University of New York
          Magna Cum Laude
          Departmental Honors 


Valerie Harris: Artist’s statement
Paintings 2006

Art transforms our experience of the world. My immediate world like many of yours, is made of trees, buildings, flowers, humanity and humanism. My world is also, the distant, but all too tangible for many of us, reality of war. My recent work is about integrating these two sides of the world–integrating the terrible, cruel political reality into the day to day reality of Western (G8) life.

These paintings have a square composition, which I associate with war–square like the roman claustra. The square does not exist in nature. Within the square composition I use gestalt images and personal imagery. Gestalt images are those that have universal meaning. The Villendorf Venus, Chagal’s horse, the monolith in 2001 Space Oddessy are good examples.. They are cross cultural, crossing centuries. In these paintings one of the gestalt images is the Orb. The orb or Sun represents a goal. Here. It is dualistic.–two sides to one coin. One side is the mandela used in Eastern religions for meditation, the other side is the target. Target used for pre mediated violence–or just practicing for it.

The paintings B52 and Falling Jaws, also, bend fears of war into peace.. In Arcachon, France a lovely seaside town on the other side of the Atlantic from New England on September 12, 2001 squadrons of Mirage jets were zooming over my studio. What frightened me most was a B52; it had been years since I had seen one. A B52 is capable of turning the world upside down. It was very heavy; swollen with bombs. In the painting B52 the Earth, represented by its blue and green colors is where the sky should be. The sky is sunset pink; the end of the day, the end of an epoch. In Falling Jaws the dripping paint spikes could be whale teeth or blood dripping from the edges of a wound; leaves drop instead of bombs. To use the 19th century phrase, dear reader I am sure you will have your own interpretation of the paintings presented in the exhibition curated by Mme. Patsy Whitman in the exhibition The French Connection.