Valen Valero

In the 21st century art, Valen Valero can be considered as on of the most important names in the younger generation of modern artists, in the abstract category, in the Philippines today.

A prolific visual artist, her abstract paintings and sculptures speak a myriad of personal and collective meanings. In an article that appeared in the Philippine Star, one of the leading news dailies in the country, on 03 September 2017, the writer wrote: “Valen Valero is an artist who makes paintings with writings, numbers, letters, and codes, and sculptures using vintage electric meters.” The Valeros is known in the power industry as they manage the La Union Electric Company; and like the electricity that powers the entire industries and communities, the power of Valero’s art is electrifying as it stimulates the minds and heart of the viewers.

A young art critic wrote also that year:

It has been said that a work of art is often the expression of the feelings and thoughts of an artist. And in the case of Valen Valero, this supposition has remained true for the pieces being shown today are but the fragments of her thoughts, of her feelings, and her beliefs on how art should be, and how the beauty of things should be recreated and presented. Nevertheless, putting these fragments together, the audience will have a glimpse of the fullness of the soul and the heart of the artist, who had been creating experimental and abstract pieces that not only arouse the curiosity of her audience but also engages them into an inner soliloquy. To “experience” the works of Valero is the greatest challenge for the audience for they are not created out of ‘pure reason” but were crafted out of the impulses that the artist has felt during those critical moments of the creation of the artworks at hand. This might sound absurd, but the creator of these pieces seemed to skip the moment of conception,” and had just into the process of creation. And the result was an astounding collection of abstract ideas and emotions, which were concretized either on canvas or out of any other materials available.

In her own creative space, Valero extends herself through numerous fragments of her thoughts, realizations, experiences, and even her beliefs and philosophies. While the critic Cid Reyes called Valero an “accidental artist,” in the curatorial note that he wrote for her 7th solo show in Renaissance Gallery in 2014 entitled “Electric Dreams,” it should be noted that she has been painting as early as the age of 5, and producing art ever since. However, she always says that creating art is just a hobby. She took up Culinary Arts from 0B Montessori, ant it was just a matter of time before she answers the call to be a fill-time artist. To further hone her craft, she studied at the famed Art Students League in New York.

To sum up, the work of Valero is intertwined with her inner and outer realities. They are the product of the ebb and flow of her thoughts and feelings, a sort of diary of her experiences as she travels and interacts with people from numerous places. Her works are her freedom park, a huge playground for her imagination. Moreover, her art is also a means to challenge the ordinary folk to think and put meaning on her body of works as abstraction, most of the time, is the art form of the formless.