Suki Valentine

          Born in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx to a family of artists, clairvoyants and political malcontents has, without a doubt, informed and impacted aspects of my life.
      By turns a professional tarot reader, front-line activist, founder of 90s punk-feminist movement Riot Grrrl, and mental health peer support counselor, my artwork, unsurprisingly, is about navigation of difficulty, the in-between, bodily autonomy and choices we make to conceal or reveal secrets and hidden histories. 

       These areas are marked by apparent contradiction, with eventual emergence in freedom or release, and follows a tradition of “struggle narratives”  as represented by, say, the Fool’s voyage through the Tarot or the story arc of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. 

        I derive additional inspiration from the Victorian era's distinct obsessions with mysticism, botany, and death; the attraction / repulsion contradiction inherent in the erotic writings of Surrealist philosopher Georges Bataille; and all things both humorous and macabre. It is the overlap of seemingly disparate sources that prove endlessly fascinating to me and serve as a primary motivator in my process. 

     Discovering and grappling with such intersections speaks to a larger goal of my work, which is locating commonality in what it means to be human. We are all breakable, vulnerable beings, capable by turns of causing great harm, making grand mistakes or achieving incredible and heroic feats. I see my art and practice in line with a history of artists that have explored potentials inherent in the human experience, for better or worse.