BIOGRAPHY
Valentina Leiva Avilés or Valeiva is a contemporary Chilean artist dedicated to painting and sculpture, recurring to the human body as base of inspiration and plastic treatment. Her work has a vivid conection to the expose the female body with saturated colors and creation of a surreal atmosphere within organs and skin.
Based on her personal creation, she recounts the experience of an Orchidarium in her works. Representing the repression of feelings and trauma, involved in the visceral of the female body and its reflection on the skin, a duality between what is not seen and what what it is. This duality involves the way our ideas and mind, create different stages to overcome problems, a commitment solution trough the psiquis and body.
CV
Valentina Leiva, has a an Art bachelor with two distinctions in the most important university of Chile, the Pontifical Catholic University, Santiago, Chile, and a master in Education in the same university (2015-2019). During this time she leaned towards painting and sculpture, and having a painting Award as a certification from the university. Her paintings represent the female body, a sexual and visceral representation in a surreal atmosphere, full of color with a saturated palette.
In her career had several group exhibitions in Santiago, Chile. Cruces (2017), XXY (2017), La reivindicación de Lilith (2019) and a pro bono exhibit in the Laura Vicuña Foundation (2019) a found raise to help childhood in danger, also was a member of the jury for an art contest for children in the same foundation.
In early 2020, she created a brand named Por Valentinas, mixing clothing and art, creating new clothes with textile sublimation, exposing her paintings in fabric, in a way the art could be available for all public in a fun and normal way.
In 2021 she went back to explore with sculptures in ceramic. Creating saturated pieces full of color, as she call ‘live and dead’ at the same time.
At the end of 2022 she was part of the exhibition Open Studio: Dead Bird, with paintings and sculptures, part of the series called Orquidarium.
STATEMENT
My paintings represent diffuse memories and traumas not yet overcome, are exposed in organs and creating new perspectives dealing with the living self and sexuality, from feminism and the relation of cultural and social context with the body.
I’ve allways been curious about the way human somatizes his mental experience. Making the body sick, or exposing symbols trough the skin to let him know something it’s wrong. It seems, that we are not in control as we think or strong enough to push all the boundaries we want.
The experience trough Orquidarium, gives back, put the crisis on a safe place, that mental experience that it’s painfull, becomes something else, create a weather condition that allows to grow.
