VALERI LARKO

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Valeri Larko is best known for her densely painted landscapes of the urban fringe, all of which she paints on location. Larko paints the infrastructure, industrial sites, abandoned buildings and urban waterways that populate the outskirts of America’s urban centers. She is drawn to the stories, these places tell about contemporary life and culture. Larko’s paintings often focus on the way nature and the built world collide in a rapidly changing city and the beauty that can be found in these overlooked areas. Larko started painting urban landscapes on site when she moved to Jersey City shortly after finishing art school. In 2004 she moved to New York, where she continues to explore and paint the ordinary environs of the outer boroughs of New York City. A large painting can take the artist 2-3 months to complete, all the while working outdoors and on site. Due to the changing light, Larko works on one painting in the morning and a second one in the afternoon. In winter she paints small canvases from the relative comfort of her car. Larko has been painting in this manner for over three decades.

Valeri Larko’s paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries in the US and beyond. Solo exhibitions include Sugarlift Gallery, NYC, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, PA, Bronx Museum, NY, WallWorks NYC, Hampden Gallery, University of Amherst, MA, Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ, New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, and the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit. Larko has been featured in various publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Artnet News, NY Daily News, NY Post, Artnews, and Untapped Cities.

Notable group exhibits include Basin Gallery & Studios, Red Hook, Brooklyn, The Bronx Museum, NY, Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY, Basin Gallery & Studios, Brooklyn, NY, Addison Ripley Fine Art, Washington DC, Talon Gallery, Portland, OR, Barbara Frigerio Gallery, Milan, Italy, Stockton College Art Gallery, Galloway, NJ, The Katonah Museum of Art, NY, The Jersey City Museum, The National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, Aljira, a center for contemporary Art, Newark NJ,

Valeri Larko grew up in Lake Parsippany and lived in Northern NJ most of her life surrounded by endless miles of industrial parks, highways and shopping malls all of which have contributed to her fascination with the built environment. She was educated at the Du Cret School of the Arts, Plainfield, NJ and the Arts Students League, New York City. In 2004, Valeri moved from northern New Jersey to an artist loft building in New Rochelle, New York where she lives with her husband and their pit bull Tula. She continues to explore the urban fringe of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.