Valerie King
Valerie A. King is a NY based artist originally from the Midwest. As an activist for human rights, her artwork primarily focuses on documenting the lives of Burmese refugees both in print and film. She has exhibited her work in galleries and art halls in Japan, France and New York. Though her photographs of the refugees are not for sale, they are used to bring in much needing funding for an orphanage as well as funding to ship care packages to the Thai/Burma border.
Valerie completed her photographic studies at the Speos Photographic Institute of Paris in 1997. She is presently a 2011 NYSCA grant recipient for a film being made on Burmese refugee women struggling to survive without papers on the Thai/Burma border. Women Make Movies is the fiscal sponsor.
The work shown in this show is representative of her drawings, paintings and photography. “There is never a particular theme, a photograph or painting is made simply from stopping in a moment and wishing to capture what is before me or within me. However, if my work is of the Burmese refugees, I am determined to give voice to their silence and to honor them. My work is not simply to hang on a wall to provoke feelings, it is to fill rice bowls and to bring aid to women and children who have been deeply hurt by war.”
Click on a thumbnail for larger image.
Purchase Dancer, $300
Purchase Woman with red African cloth, $150
Purchase I found a flower in broken cement, $200
Burmese boy in refugee camp, Thai/Burma border, NFS
