Valérie Delarue
NEWS
Art Brussels 2026, from Thursday 23 April to Sunday 26 April 2026.
Valérie Delarue entered the Beaux-Arts de Paris as a painter, before quickly joining the sculpture studio of Georges Jeanclos. During her studies, she completed an artistic program in Oakland, in the United States, working in Viola Frey’s studio, where she first became acquainted with ceramics.
Deeply moved by a project inspired by Nicolas Poussin’s forest undergrowth—an experience that brought her back to the Sarthois woods of her childhood—she discovered the practice of clay. This encounter led her, upon graduating from the Beaux-Arts in 1995, to devote herself to ceramics, a medium that has captivated her ever since.
Over time, Valérie Delarue has developed an intimate and expert understanding of the technical subtleties of ceramics. Today, she is regarded as a leading figure in her field.
“Plunging one’s hands into clay is to build and preserve a world of one’s own, sheltered from the frenzy that surrounds us. It is an animal, carnal act, where gesture brings life forth and, in doing so, reconnects with the human.”
— Valérie Delarue
“All of Valérie Delarue’s art consists in resolving conflicting forces into a harmonious whole. Alongside her ceramic sculpture, she renews a meaningful dialogue with drawing, and through her dazzling mastery of pastel she brings forth the dawn of a reconciled world, where the human and the mineral ultimately seem able to come together in a single, indistinct unity.”
— Frédéric Bodet, Collection Curator, Art Critic, Exhibition Curator
