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Valerie is a Nigerian artist born in Geneva, Switzerland specialising in figurative abstract art.
Having developed a love for art at a young age Valerie joined an atelier for mentorship with a professional artist in 2008. It was then that she began to hone her craft and thus found new ways of applying her skill through mediums such as pottery, charcoal and collage.
Finding herself drawn to the cubism movement, Valerie got the inspiration that she needed to create outside ‘the box’ of realism. It was this abandonment of logic that helped Valerie find her own distinct style using mainly acrylic to depict purported human figures and warped objects against vividly coloured backgrounds.
This approach also became a fitting metaphor for her experience as a first-generation immigrant living in Switzerland.
“ I think that we are very unique. We don’t quite fit in with our surroundings, but we’re also light-years apart from our parent’s world. So, there’s no blueprint to follow. That’s it. That’s what my work is about.”
Valerie’s art can be found referencing different aspects of her Nigerian culture.
She hopes that this will provide audiences with an alternative narrative of what it means to be Nigerian, something that she also had to learn as a child of the diaspora.
Having developed a love for art at a young age Valerie joined an atelier for mentorship with a professional artist in 2008. It was then that she began to hone her craft and thus found new ways of applying her skill through mediums such as pottery, charcoal and collage.
Finding herself drawn to the cubism movement, Valerie got the inspiration that she needed to create outside ‘the box’ of realism. It was this abandonment of logic that helped Valerie find her own distinct style using mainly acrylic to depict purported human figures and warped objects against vividly coloured backgrounds.
This approach also became a fitting metaphor for her experience as a first-generation immigrant living in Switzerland.
“ I think that we are very unique. We don’t quite fit in with our surroundings, but we’re also light-years apart from our parent’s world. So, there’s no blueprint to follow. That’s it. That’s what my work is about.”
Valerie’s art can be found referencing different aspects of her Nigerian culture.
She hopes that this will provide audiences with an alternative narrative of what it means to be Nigerian, something that she also had to learn as a child of the diaspora.
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