Originally from a theater background, Renee Valenti transitioned into Visual Art and eventually completed her MFA at School of the Art Institute of Chicago in their interdisciplinary low-residency program. Her work has been shown at The Amarillo Museum of Art (Amarillo, TX), the 2017 Whitney Biennial in participation with Occupy Museums (New York, NY), Union Street Gallery (Chicago Heights, IL), Chandler Center for the Arts (Randolph, VT) and an upcoming show at the Charles Allis Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI).

Renee describes her painting as “a tearing down and building up process, erasing or sanding over certain areas and then returning to them. Referencing the figure and using paint as the primary material, and sometimes including other collaged elements, I use medium, form, and color to convey narrative. I deconstruct the paintings by scraping or sanding down areas and building them back up in layers, eventually nailing them to the front of panels, turning them into objects. My current series incorporates mixed media elements like glitter paper, my cut-up orphaned works on canvas, chewing gum, and sandpaper. These paintings focus, or have a jumping-off point of focusing on, a Frankenstein-ian amorousness of flesh and ground, the female gaze, deconstruction and reconstruction, and pleasure.”