Our Secret Auction Artists: Laurence de Valmy

Here at Art on a Postcard, we are always so grateful for the extreme generosity of our artists not only for donating a postcard-sized work of art to help us raise money for The Hepatitis C Trust, but for the amount of time that they set aside to support us.

This year we are delighted to be hosting our exhibition at WeWork in Devonshire Square. WeWork provides beautiful, collaborative work spaces offering ambitious businesses the space, community and services they need to thrive. Taking inspiration from WeWork we decided to meet up with some of the 170 artists who kindly donated work to this year’s Secret Auction to discuss their studio spaces and how it influences their practice.

We met with exciting artist Laurence de Valmy to discover what makes her studio so special.

Artist bio:

Laurence de Valmy is a French born artist, who lives and works in Philadelphia. Her work reflects on the relationship between art and modern technologies and more precisely on the use of social media by artists.

She was awarded an Artist Residency by the ESKFF at Mana Contemporary, NJ in 2017 for her work on the POST series, which depicts fictional Instagram Posts of the past of famous artists.

Laurence combines her knowledge in art history and her skills in painting to appropriate these iconic artworks and share their stories. Each artwork, created with acrylic, is a clever juxtaposition of an original painting and an imagined conversation historically accurate yet humorous.

She is represented by Azart Gallery (NY) and Kahn Gallery (London). Her work has been shown in international art fairs and museums. Her paintings can be found in many private collections including Hubert Burda Collection and Eileen Kaminsky Foundation.

How would you describe your studio?

It’s an organized chaos! Everything has its place and it’s practical but there is lots of stuff, as probably in all artists’ studios. It seems I can never have enough paint, brushes and pencils! On the walls, I stick my current or upcoming projects, and I have a poster of a painting by David Hockney, one of my favorite artists.

How does your personal environment effect your creative practise?

I guess the environment always plays a role. As for me, being French living next to New York City has influenced my work and given me opportunities to meet people that I might not have otherwise. My residency at the ESKFF at MANA Contemporary, NJ was the fruit of one of these happy encounters and that’s where I developed my current POST series. It was a great experience: I loved sharing with other artists and got to meet new people who have supported my work.

What makes a good space to create art in? 

I paint with acrylics on stretched canvas, so it’s fairly simple to set up I guess compared to sculptors, printmakers or spray painters. I mostly need enough space to work on different paintings at the same time and then of course white light, music and a teapot.