dani marti artwork

angela valamanesh

artist in residence 2018

Angela Valamanesh is a fulltime independent visual artist with a research based studio practice that draws on art / science connections and spans more than thirty years. She has participated in a number of national and international residency programs and acknowledges the great benefits that these opportunities offer.

Primarily known for her ceramic works, she also makes works on paper, board and mixed media. Her recent works consist of simple forms that often make links between plant, human and animal. She is interested in imagery that is ambiguous, that has a certain familiarity to but is not completely or easily recognisable.

For Angela Valamanesh, the natural world is a source of seemingly endless fascination. Inspired by the great diversity of forms found within nature, as well as the underlying similarities and patterns that emerge from their careful study, she creates work that offers a uniquely poetic insight into aspects of the surrounding world.

Valamanesh's view is a very particular one however: describing her subjects from a microscopic perspective, she looks at them from the inside out, and in doing so depicts familiar objects in a decidedly unfamiliar way.

Investigating shape, pattern, texture and serial variation, Valamanesh looks beyond the surface and highlights connections between animal, vegetable and mineral, prompting consideration of our place within that complex ecology and the greater world.
[Kirsty Grant, Melbourne, May 2017]

Angela Valamanesh was born in Port Pirie, South Australia in 1953 and currently lives and works in Adelaide. Valamanesh holds a Diploma in Design in Ceramics from the South Australian School of Art (1977), a Master of Visual Arts from the University of South Australia (1993), and a PhD from the University of South Australia (2012).

Valamanesh has participated in many solo and group exhibitions including: Heartlands, Contemporary Art from South Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2013); and the South Australian Living Artists Festival, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide (2015). Valamanesh's work is held in several significant collections in Australia including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

Angela also works occasionally in collaboration with her partner Hossein on large public art projects such as Adelaide Botanic Garden's Ginkgo Gate and occasionally on studio based works.