Artists

Valerie Hammond

“The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into what-ever garments of belief please them best” Yeats

Where does the work come from?.... traveling in California and strolling through a flea market finding a battered copy of Yeats The Celtic Twilight ….reading, finding an instant connection with my own Irish roots of the melancholy and the magic. Writing journals of my dreams. Driving in the car listening to an interview with Paul Auster as he speaks about “ the subject of loss and how one walks around with ghosts inside of us.” Seeing the shadows and hearing the sound of fluttering wings. A friend gives me drawings of moths that sparkle. Helping a four-year-old look in the mirror. Finding a wisp of hair on a branch, La belle et La Bete. Saying goodbye to a child. Finally, clearing the path to the river from the house. Digging up roots from the wet clay, from the warm river mud, collecting them. Women as dolls, drudges, helpmates and heroines… I begin a story.

In Fairytales the word Twilight invokes the time between day and night, the gloaming or dusk when people can cross over to the other side willingly or unwilling. In this new work I see myself as a raconteur telling stories filtered through the lense of fairytales and daily life. Using fairytales to come to terms with the dilemmas of ones inner life and day-to-day musings. Fairytales can be tales of wonder and at the same time cautionary tales. In these works I am exploring the ideas of transformation and duality through a variety of media and materials. The realm of the natural world that surrounds me in my upstate microcosm is very connected to the realm of my visual world and the process of telling these my stories."

BIO

Education
MFA University of CA, Berkeley

Selected Exhibitions:

2008
Twilight, contes de fées, Garson Baker Fine Art, 2008
small wonders, Garson Baker Fine Art, New York, NY
Propagating Eden: Uses and Techniques of Nature Printing in Botany and Art, ICPNY, NY, NY
Peace, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, NY
NEXT Art Fair, Cue Gallery, Chicago, IL
Art Chicago, Wildwood Press, Chicago, IL
2007
Corpo-real , Book as Body, Body as Book, Rutgers University, Newark, NJThe Big Draw, site-specific public drawing project at Teardrop Park, The Drawing Center, NY, NY
Ten Years of Wildwood Press, Bennington College, Bennington, VermontTease, Garson Fine Arts, New York, NY
Emily Dickinson Rendered, GlyndorGallery, Wave Hill, Bronx, NY
Valerie Hammond Works in Progress, Wildwood Press, St. Louis, Missouri
Ether Valerie Hammond, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
2006
Valerie Hammond, curated by Kiki Smith, The Cue Foundation, NY, NY
Colectiva Diciembre-Emero, Michel Soskine Inc., Madrid Spain
Hair, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Valerie Hammond, M% Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio
Art 212, M% Gallery, New York, New York
Valerie Hammond and Mary Mcfarland, NG Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
Flow Art Fair, M% Gallery, Miami, Florida
2005
De Balthus a Zeller, Michel Soskine In., Madrid, Spain
Tracings, Valerie Hammond, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Valerie Hammond/Kim Cridler; Tracings, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah
Scope New York, M% Gallery, New York, New York
Pulp, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
New Prints 2005/Spring Selected by Kiki Smith, International Print Center, NY, NY
Encaustic Works 2005, Sammuel Dorsky Museum, New Paltz, New York
2004
Means, RKL Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
Valerie Hammond and Judy Pfaff, M% Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio
Valerie Hammond, Port Gallery, Port Chalmers, New Zealand
Multiple Encounters, Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, New Delhi, India, Jawahar, Kala Dendra, Jaipur, Dala Akadeni, Goa, Dirla Akadeni of fine Arts, Calcutta
2003
Valerie Hammond, Memento, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
Meander, M% Gallery, Cleveland Ohio
Garden of Compassion, Lisa Sette Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
2002
25th Small Works, 8 Washington Square East Galleries, (Jury Prize)
Yale Faculty Show, Norfolk, Connecticut
Small Packages, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
Winter Show, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York, NY
2001
Work of Papers, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York
Memory, Brewery Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
2000
Prints 2000, Holland Tunnel Gallery, Brooklyn, New York
Waxing Poetic Encaustic Art in America, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey,
And Knoxville Art Museum, Knoxville, Tennessee
1999
Valerie Hammond and Lisa Lawley, The Panting Center, New York, New York
1998
Location, Kendall Fine Art, Hudson, New York
1997
The Altered Image, Islip Art Museum, New York
1996
A Sense of Order, The Painting Center, New York
Woman’s Drawings, Council of the Arts Gallery, Catskill, New York
1995
Group Show, Artist Space Gallery, New York
Gallery Artists, Galerie Caroline Corre, Paris, France
Group Show, Mona Bismark Foundation, Paris, France
1989
Artists Books, Galerie Caroline Corre, Paris, France
1998
Valerie Hammond, J.L. Becker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts
Messages, Carlo La Magna Gallery, New York
1984
Disposable Art Show, Kamikaze, New York
The Fan Show, Jon Leon Gallery, New York
1983
Original Artists Books, Frankfurt, Germany
Prenez un livre dit-elle, Yerres, France
Books of American Artists, Galerie Caroline Corre, Paris, France
3rd Salon du Livre Grand Palais Museum, Paris, France

Collections:
Grand Palais Museum, Paris, France; Kiki Smith, New York, NY; Clive Davis, New York, NY;
Agnes Gund, New York, NY; The Progressive Collection, Cleveland, Ohio

Selected Teaching Positions and Grants:
2008Columbia University, New York, NY; Advanced Printmaking
2007Columbia University, New York, NY; Advanced Printmaking
University, New York, N.Y.; Advance Printmaking
2005 Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; Advanced Printmaking, Adjunct Professor
2005 New York University, New York, N.Y.; Advanced Printmaking, Adjunct Professor
2004 Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; Advanced Printmaking, Adjunct Professor
Cooper Union, New York, N.Y.; Drawing, Adjunct Professor
2003 New York University, New York, N.Y.; Printmaking, Adjunct
Professor
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.’ Visiting Critic Painting
1999-2003 Yale University, Norfolk Program, Norfolk, Conn.; Printmaking instructor
2006 LMCC Artist Grant
2002 New York Foundation for the Arts Recovery Grant
1999-2002 Manhattan Graphic Center, Printmaking instructor
Studio in a School Artist in Residence


Selected Favorable Reviews:

2006 Smith, Kiki, Curators Statement: Valerie Hammond, catalogue, The Cue Foundation
Stavitsky, Gail. Waxing Poetic: Encaustic Art in America. New Jersey; Rutgers University Press, (1999), Cotter, Holland
A Garden of Subjects, Materials and Styles Across New Jersey. New York Times, July (1999)
Zimmer, William. Was as a Medium and a Message, New York Times, June (1999)