Valerie Zimany examines complex relationships between the East and West, nature and technology, and intimate and public worlds through the lens of her American background and extended education in Japan. Borrowed and appropriated images from the histories of art, nature, and society transform surfaces, and suggest symbolic intersections between these different cultures. Distantly familiar archetypes from 1970’s electronics and design, traditional textile patterns, vintage enameled china, and manga or graffiti overlap to create seemingly improbable combinations. Narratives stretch over forms evocative of botanicals and the body, and are often colored with uneasy sensuality or aggressiveness, yet allure with voluptuous softness. Small vignettes hide in crevices as memories do in the corners of the mind. By clashing colors, forms, and imagery she forces relationships or questions the compatibility, and parallel a feeling of wandering out of place at just the right time.
The Art of Valerie Zimany
