VALERIE GEORGE (she/her) is an artist whose work over the past twenty years has reflected holistically on art and life in the form of installation art, site-specific works, video, performance, sound, sculpture, photography, new media, drawing, collaborative projects, and curatorial practices. Her artistic practice is an exploration of themes of play, chance, entropy, transcendence, the history of place. Through her work, Valerie George not only questions and redefines the boundaries of art but also seeks to create a space where art and life converge, offering meditations on the multifaceted experience of being human.
Collaboration is a vital component of George's practice, as she frequently engages in joint projects that expand her artistic dialogue and explore collective creation. Her curatorial endeavors strive to foster community and dialogue within the art world, highlighting underrepresented voices and perspectives.
George received her MFA from the University of California, Davis, having worked closely with mentors Lynn Hershman- Leeson and Mary Lucier. She is a Full Professor of Art at the University of West Florida, Arts Editor of Panhandler Magazine: A Journal of Art and Literature, a member of Good Children Gallery, and a Co-Founder and Co-Director of the 309 Punk Project.
Collaboration is a vital component of George's practice, as she frequently engages in joint projects that expand her artistic dialogue and explore collective creation. Her curatorial endeavors strive to foster community and dialogue within the art world, highlighting underrepresented voices and perspectives.
George received her MFA from the University of California, Davis, having worked closely with mentors Lynn Hershman- Leeson and Mary Lucier. She is a Full Professor of Art at the University of West Florida, Arts Editor of Panhandler Magazine: A Journal of Art and Literature, a member of Good Children Gallery, and a Co-Founder and Co-Director of the 309 Punk Project.
She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including Good Children Gallery (New Orleans, LA), Locust Projects (Miami, FL), Public Address (Brooklyn, NY), Cinders Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Worksound Gallery (Portland, OR), Coop Gallery (Nashville, TN), Norton Museum (West Palm, FL), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL), Center on Contemporary Art (Seattle, WA), Sonoma County Museum (Santa Rosa, CA), Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery (San Francisco, CA), Robert Miller Gallery (NY, NY), Adobe Backroom Gallery (San Francisco, CA), LaMama Gallery (New York, NY) Sarai Media Lab (New Delhi, India), FemArt Mostra D’Art De Dones (Barcelona, Spain), and the Horse Hospital (London, England).
She has been invited to participate in the international Every Women Biennial (NYC), the RCA Street Festival (Richmond, VA), {Re-Happening} at Lake Eden (former site of Black Mountain College) (Black Mountain, NC), Art in the Open (Philadelphia, PA), and South by Southwest (SXSW) at Okay Mountain Gallery (Austin, TX). She was also a Visiting Artist & Lecturer at the Hangar Residency (Barcelona, Spain) and Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA). Her work is in the Norton Museum of Art collection and was purchased for the museum by curator Tim Wride (formerly the curator of Photography at LACMA). Her work has been reviewed by NPR (WHYY), Burnaway Magazine, Tom Tom Magazine: A Magazine for Female Drummers, Tape Op: The Creative Music Recording Magazine, Amp Magazine, and Drain Magazine: A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture. Most recently, she was selected for the Every Woman Biennial in New York.
She is a Co-Founder of 309 Punk Project in Pensacola, FL since 2016 and has been Co-Executive Director and Curator since 2020, working with Sean Linezo and Christopher Satterwite. 309 N. 6th Avenue became a punkhouse in the late 1990’s. Arguably the oldest continuously inhabited Punk House in the south, 309 and its residents played a role in the American Punk subculture for decades. Over the years, internationally renowned photographers, painters, writers, activists, and musicians have lived in 309. Long-standing local businesses and non-profit organizations rose out of the creative fires of 309.
In 2016, the non-profit, 309 Punk Project was a collective founded to raise awareness about its history through curatorial practice and programming efforts and to raise funds towards the purchase and renovation of the house. The house was officially procured in 2019 and was to open its doors as a Punk Archive and an Artist in Residence Program in August 2020, yet due to COVID-19 we postponed opening until October 2021. Since January 2022, we have welcomed several Artists-in-Residence and held numerous events.
She was awarded the Artist in Residence Fellowship at the Everglades National Park (AIRIE) in May 2016 and the Artist in Residence Fellowship at the Bilpin International Ground for Creative Initiatives Artists Residency (BigCi) in Australia in May 2017. She was selected as one of the 16 members of Good Children Gallery in New Orleans, LA, in 2020. Recently participated in the University of Mississippi's Artist in Residence Program in Oxford in 2022, and the Stove Works Artist in Residence Program in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2023 and 2024.
Most recently she was included in the Every Woman Biennial in New York, NY.