Artist Statement
A gaze is never singular – it entangles a pair. Through observation, we paint a moving picture, transformed by external and internal influences. In these shifting truths, my work is born. Far from being surrealist, my art is profoundly anchored in reality, digging below the horizon of our perception to invite our gaze into the realm of the invisible. My paintings dive into materiality to reveal its esoteric – in its greek meaning of ‘interior’ – depths. My work portrays a rich subjective reality populated by sensations, myths, archetypes forming the invisible skeleton upholding our mundane life.
We are made of flesh and stories, which I tell through the language of colors. Their nuanced spectrum illuminates the unspeakable truths of emotions. By mastering their language, one can trace a map of the sensual body beyond words, paint a landscape of memory. Oil painting echoes our sebum covered flesh. Matter reflects and transforms the subject – magical realism comes to life in the liminal space between the meta and the physical. The magic trick is to hold different realms of consciousness into a singular surface. In an increasingly polarized society, I stand firmly at the frontier between the absurd and the ordinary, the beautiful and the grotesque, the scientific and the spiritual.
Artist’s biography
Amma Valentine was born in Paris in 93 and got transplanted in Montreal / Tiotia:ké in 2002. After getting her BFA with honors from Concordia in 2017, she found her way to painting through portraiture and a long sojourn in the woods of Rivière-du-Loup. Now re-settled in Montréal/Tiotia:ké she explores notions of identity, storytelling and the body primarily through the lense of oil painting, with a special interest for colors and their emotional resonance in work she associates to magical realism. She is currently working on a large scale project after receiving a CCA grant playing with these very concepts in a communal creative way.
Démarche Artistique
Un regard n’est jamais singulier. Il révèle tout autant le sujet, l’objet et l’espace qui les relie. C’est dans cette réalité aux points de vue multiples que naissent mes œuvres. Loin d’être surréalistes, mes tableaux sont profondément ancrés dans la réalité, creusant simplement un peu sous notre ligne d’horizon, invitant à notre regard le domaine de l’invisible. En soi, je peins une réalité subjective riche, trace un chemin vers le monde souterrain des sens, mythes et archétypes qui sont les invisibles structures osseuses de nos existences.
Nous sommes faits d’os et d’histoires – et je les raconte à travers le langage nuancé des couleurs. En les apprivoisant, on peut tracer au-delà des mots une carte du corps émotionnel, un paysage de mémoire. Le pinceau glisse dans l’huile qui fait écho à nos propres corps débordants de sébum. La matière reflète et transforme le sujet, brouillant les pistes. Le réalisme magique prend vie à la frontière du méta et du physique. Dans une société de plus en plus polarisée, je m’ancre fermement dans l’espace liminal entre l’absurde et le banal, le beau et le grotesque, le scientifique et le spirituel.
