Valerie Goodman is an artist born and raised in South Carolina, who is now working in the Cleveland, Ohio area. She received her BFA in Sculpture and Expanded Media with an emphasis in creative writing from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2020. Valerie is currently an MFA candidate in Sculpture and Expanded Media at Kent State University. Valerie’s Artwork has been on display at the KINK Contemporary Gallery, Zygote Gallery, Reinberger Gallery, and the Bill-Busta Gallery among others.

Artist Statement

“My work is a wandering body of animal fibers and oily interiors. I indulge in the “illogical” through intuitive crochet and monotony to build abstracted bodily forms reminiscent of what may be extracted from an absurdly large being. The forms leak fluids, are suspended above the ground as if preserved by a butcher or predatory animal, and discarded or left to rot. I mine experiences of being raised on a farm in rural South Carolina to depict complex experiences of life, death, joy, and the abject visceral horror that comes with caring for large animals as a young child and relating my body to their fates. These early life experiences of the body collide with growing into a woman and relating with others through various relationships, mundane interactions with my environment, and neuroses that build into chaotic obsessions and delusions. I work to acknowledge humanity in minutely obscure, often unspoken experiences other people hold that parallel mine and can be utilized to challenge normative structures of sexism and capitalism that alienate us from our bodies and each other. These structures rely on alienation and isolation to maintain power, but relating to the humanity of grossness or discomforting odd experiences of the body actively works against these efforts.”

Contact:

valerieg1024@gmail.com

Instagram: @valgoodman.art