VAL: A RETROSPECTIVE of her life's work 2004 - 2016

In loving tribute to Val, this exhibition will take a fresh perspective on Val’s oeuvre ranging from her iconic bold and striking works of Bronze such as the 36-meter long sculpture, “From Chaos to Wisdom”, shown on the next page, to the intricate Murano glass and bronze sculptures such as the “The Story Teller”, shown on the right. It is in these artworks that we find Val’s innate ability to cast an alluring duality in her art pieces; On one hand, her artworks offer an intimate peer into the inner workings of her mind, yet on the other, her pieces work as a catalyst to unfurl the viewer’s artistic interpretations, ensuring a connection between art and the viewer.

Valérie Goutard (Val, 1967 – 2016), was a highly lauded bronze and glass sculptor whose works today can be found displayed at the Art Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts of Beijing (CAFA), the New Times Square in Taipei, the Benjasiri Park in Bangkok, the Art and Arch Museum in Taiwan, and the Sky Suites @ Anson and the Sorento Residence in Singapore, and many more. Her works have also been featured in various art fairs, namely Shanghai Art Fair, Art Taipei, Art Busan, and India Art Fair.

It was after a major exhibition held at the REDSEA Gallery called “Theatre of Life” in 2010, along with a very notable participation at the Shanghai Art Fair in 2010 as part of the Jing'An International Sculpture Park Project, where her very first monumental sculpture entitled “Urban life” was displayed, that Val saw her sculptures gain great critical acclaim. Following this, Val’s career followed an inclined trajectory where she secured numerous exhibitions and public installations that have since become synonymous with her artistic style. In May of 2016, The Central Academy of Fine Arts of Beijing, or CAFA for short, paid Val a rare tribute by organising a retrospective exhibition of her works and its museum acquired “Autoportrait” and “Eternal Pillars” for its permanent collection.

Every work by Val is infused with an intensity of her self-expression and often explores the delicate balance between man and his environment. In 2016, Val embarked on an artistic and ecological grand feat of installing three monumental sculptures on the seabed of Koh Tao in Thailand, which introduced extinct coral reefs back into Koh Tao’s ecosystem. The sculpture series entitled “Ocean Utopia” was made up of bronze, marine concrete, and the extinct coral, and has since flourished into its own ecosystem underwater.

At the time of her passing, Val was working on a 36-metre long sculptural project due to be installed in Taichung, Taiwan in 2017. It was installed in 2017 on the heights of Taichung, Taiwan, a few months after her tragic death in Thailand in October 2016.

The exhibition will be on display from the 20th to 29th of February 2020 at REDSEA Gallery, from 11 am to 8 pm daily.