Renée Valenti

Born in New Haven, Connecticut. Lives and works in New Haven, CT and New York In her recent series, biomorphic shapes emerge in highly saturated color devoid of their original narratives. They are inspired by alien figures, body parts, and fringe characters happily living outside societal norms. They fill with colors like bright Cadmium Orange, Naphthol Red, and Quinacridone Opera (a pink that has the subtlety of a Liberace pantsuit). Like a skin, the canvases are pinned directly to the wall. The smaller and medium-sized works are completed by being nailed to wood panels. Her process often includes tearing down the surface with the intention of building it up once again in layers. She is attracted to the lore of Frankenstein- an amour of the art of tearing down and rebuilding, reconfiguring flesh and ground, and questioning desire. The human body and our collective stories, lived and imagined, are a continued source of inspiration for her practice. Recent exhibitions include New Normal: Working Through Quarantine, Payne Gallery-Moravian University, Bethlehem, PA (2021); The Whitney Biennial in participation with Occupy Museums, New York, NY (2017); High Plains Highways, The Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX (2016); Re-Picturing Photography, Union Street Gallery, Chicago Heights, IL (2015); Sound and Fury, Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, VT (2015). In 2019, Renee curated and organized DISARM, a group show and benefit held at Automatic Studios in DUMBO. She received a grant from the Mayer Foundation for a photo project along Route 66 and has been an artist in residence at Main Street Arts and Lacawac Artist Residency. She received an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2016) and a BFA from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY (2012).