Real Art News: Raising the bar ...

Monday 25 September 2023

Raising the bar ...

What a fookin world it is out there

A few years ago when a weird government backed initiative started trying to employ pretty much any one of my contemporaries as a makeshift mascot for their strange little property development projects ... Every single time I was tied up over giving the council a legal kicking regarding some humanitarian issue or blatant corruption charges , lo and behold , they would give a building to some corporation to start an arts collective , or suddenly have a mad dash attempt at running parallel operations , stuffing little boutique's into odd locations , weird little allegiances forming ' liberal arts collectives ' mural groups , mindful art Ness ( all really great at banging tambourines and paying the applicable rents rates and tax homages on their beverages and rainbow flags , sitting like well behaved children with a colouring book - but instead of a colouring book , it's grant funding applications - please sir , can I have some more? ....after more than 15 years of ideological austerity, recessions , credit crunches , brexits and pandemics ....please sir , can I have some more ? You people are the fucking end of the world personified as a veritable braying pack of village idiots ...and you don't even know it , well maybe you do but you just don't care -out there competing over percentages and likes and target audience optimisations ....your all fucking mental !!! )

I started to be sure of the scent of shit on the wind , it's hard to ascertain for certain what with all these interestingly timed tyre fires that seem to spontaneously and miraculously pumping out confusing aromas into the scene

I said to a friend of mine at the time - this feels a bit like that movie , what was it called - the talented Mr Ripley

These days of course , the sphere of my apparent influence is indeed as broad as I was originally aiming for - despite my cantankerous disposition and the lack of love that has apparently afforded me

These days I'm far more reflective of a quote from the movie ' the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford '

" you know i can't figure it out ....do you want to be like me ? Or do you want to be me ? "

We live in some funny bloody muddy water these days

Stuff that in your eligible funding criteria 😆

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The Signature Style

Part of the ongoing body of works that have been come to be known as ' the Valerio Signature Style ' that has now come to encompass independent sub headings within the genre, including , ' The mandalas ' , ' The Orgy Balls ' , ' Studies of the Female Form ' , ' Cerebral ' and ' Unorthodox'

A manner of works I began working on as a child , to attempt to keep away from over embellishing them or over anthropomorphising or patterning , just to stay in the most grounding earthy tones and let the mind wander through the undulations to assist in the firing of the imagination

'The Under-exaggerated Origins of V'

After studying at Plymouth College of Art and Design, Valerio continued his studies at Sheffield Hallam University and Greenwich University and West Kent College.

Now based between his studio in Cornwall and Amsterdam, he is able to collaborate with some of the best known names in Art and Architecture on an international scale as well as here at home in the south west.

Valerio Describes his own work as ' dreamlike manifestations, evoking less than circumstantial references to archetypal memories of landscapes, and local geographies, figurative studies and all in between that which is captured in the veld of the diverse experiences that make up a lifetime.'

Chris Burchell, Art Critic and Curator of the Wharf Gallery , Tavistock 2010

written a few years ago now.

Valerio has been a keen art student. he has made excellent progress, demonstrating an imaginative and innovative response to a variety of stimuli, and has produced some outstanding units of course work.

Valerio has improved his ability to draw from observation with increasing skill and enjoys working in a variety of media, he has shown ability to draw from experience and imagination. Valerio has produced paintings of unusual quality, and shows a real awareness of the use of colour. His heightened critical awareness of other artists and cultures is an integral and successful aspect of his own work and he works well independently. Valerio's talent recommends him without question.

1998 Sue Lord artist and teacher

What do you make of the artist as a person?

Valerio , the man is a Raving Maniac, A genuine charicature of what an artist should be, hes eloquent and polite soft spoken and gentile , unless he is working on something of particular focus then he can be irritable , and unreasonable , never knowing if he is about to burst into song , or scream and shout a series of profanities against whatever is vexing him most at the time, even visitors to the gallery , ever outspoken and provocative toward debate, the constant array of models and well wishers that tend to come with the Artists Gallery appearances , can make even a quiet day seem lively!

Elusive is something of an understatement with this Artist and appearances are Rare as are his lectures and public exposures but a keen collaborator you will find the signature Valerio influence in many places you really wouldnt be expecting to find it, A very strong talent for such a young Artist already exhibiting his well developed style so that it is instantly recognizable, a Talent and a Character rapidly gaining in influence and popularity, and deservedly so!

T. McCracken Owner of The Tiffany Gallery East Looe

101 Reasons....

From the series of sketchbook illustrations that eventually became the published book of illustrations ' 101 Reasons to choose a vocation in the creative industries ' the original series started out as a series of autobiographical sidenotes in my working sketchbooks, a clear homage to the work of Ralph Steadman and Hunter Thompson, are little cartoons I have been doing during those moments when you say to yourself ' what the actual F**k ??!!' which can happen a lot in this job !! the original set of sketchbook thumbnails were each revised for the publication and have always proved a great hit in their own right whenever they have gone on display at exhibition . Now in the 11th year of ongoing production, the series now consists of over 200 hundred images depicting recollections or reflections from Working Corporate positions in 2000 -my first pop up gallery ' The Arts Hole in Cornwall '2006- 'The Green Star House ' Design and build Project 2009- through the political and legal battles of the 'Valerio Institute'2013- to our most recent projects of ' Why Not ' in Amsterdam and the latest ART B&B and education projects running in parallel in Cornwall u.k and Amsterdam N.L 2016/2017 It Really has been quite a ride