Horizon d’argile

Marie-Hélène de La Forest Divonne fell in love with Valérie Delarue’s ceramics, which she discovered at the Maison de Balzac last spring. The gallery has therefore decided to devote a solo exhibition to her this year, from March 28 to May 02.

Galerie La Forest Divonne will now represent the work of Valérie Delarue.

The “Horizon d’argile” exhibition will feature a range of ceramic sculptures representative of Valérie Delarue’s work, from “Berangère”, an emblematic two-metre-high sculpture, to the Vanités she composes in earthenware and clay, like cornucopias overflowing with elements from the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, where the signs of a human passage are visible.

Valérie Delarue graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1994 with a diploma from Georges Jeanclos’ studio. She also studied art in Oackland, USA, in Viola Frey’s studio. Valérie Delarue is first and foremost a painter. During her studies, she was overwhelmed by Nicolas Poussin’s undergrowth, and sought the right
medium for retranscribing them. Her search led her to ceramics, a clay medium she immediately embraced. Over the years, Valérie Delarue has acquired an intimate and expert knowledge of the technical subtleties of the ceramic medium. Today, she is one of the leading names in her field.

“Valérie Delarue’s art consists in resolving conflicting forces into a harmonious whole. Alongside ceramic sculpture, she is renewing a relevant dialogue with drawing, with her dazzling art of pastel, through which she brings to life the dawn of a reconciled world, where human and mineral seem to be able to finally come together in an indistinct unity.”

– Frédéric Bodet
Curator of collections, art critic and exhibition curator
Curator in charge of contemporary collections at the Musée National de la Céramique de Sèvres from 2013 to 2018
Quote from the Catalogue “de Babel à Eden” published on the occasion of Valérie Delarue’s solo exhibition at the Musée de la Reine-Bérengère, Le Mans, 2018