Jeffrey Vallance
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Jeffrey Vallance | |
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Nuku'alofa, 1985 | |
| Born | Jeffrey Karl Reese Vallance January 25, 1955 , U.S. |
| Known for | Art |
Jeffrey Karl Reese Vallance (born January 25, 1955, in Redondo Beach, California) is an American contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is best known for projects that blur the lines between object-making, installation, performance, curation and anthropological study.
Early life
Raised in Southern California's
Vallance received a BA in Art from
Vallance is the leading force in a distinct version of
Vallance's childhood involvement with his local
His first formal training came from his maternal grandfather,
Vallance's over 80 performances have often involved interactions with foreign dignitaries, including audiences with
In the early 1970s, during the
At Los Angeles Pierce College in the mid 1970s he created a series of his own wallets, complete with photos & I.D. cards, that he purposefully "lost" at government and public institutions such as The White House. Shown in the Library Building, the wallets were displayed alongside the letters received, on official stationery, when they were returned to him by U. S. Mail. He also did a series of drawings of a bearded and bespectacled Dr. Loam. The series depicted the good Dr. interacting with various and sundry aspects of life, culminating with one titled "Dr. Loam gets a Lobotomy". Quickly executed in colorful markers on poster board, they were hung all over the campus.
Career
In 1983, Vallance traveled to Polynesia in search of the myth of Tiki. The resulting artwork, exhibited first in Los Angeles and then internationally, inspired a new genre which came to be known as Tiki Art.
In 1992, while doing volunteer work for the city-council campaign of disgraced former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry (who had just been released from six months in federal prison for smoking crack), Vallance curated "Splashing with Barry (Marion Barry Pool Party)," an art exhibit at Barry's residence in the Washington View Apartments.
Other projects include creating a Richard Nixon Museum; traveling to the
Vallance's many forms of work have been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including
In popular culture
In 1983, Vallance was the host of
In 1984, Vallance appeared on an episode of The Regis Philbin Show to teach Philbin how to make art. He has also appeared in numerous European and Asian arts and culture documentaries.
Having created album-cover artwork for several early-'80s punk bands including Monitor, Vallance was hired by Grammy-winning art director Kevin Reagan to create art for the cover of singer-songwriter Peter Case's album Six-Pack of Love (Geffen) in 1992.
Vallance also created an onstage backdrop for the band Oingo Boingo which was used on tour and seen on The Joan Rivers Show.
Awards
In 2004, Vallance received the prestigious
Paranormalcy
Since 2003, when psychic medium Dorothy Maksym identified Vallance as being the earthly spokesperson for the disembodied spirit of former US president
Vallance's interest in the paranormal was piqued by his paternal grandmother, a
Vallance's paranormal research projects include Bigfoot, the Shroud of Turin, the Holy Lance, ghosts of dead US presidents, the Ravens of the Tower of London and the Loch Ness Monster.
For a project at the Frieze Art Fair in London, Vallance assembled psychic mediums to channel the spirits of five famous dead artists: Leonardo da Vinci, Marcel Duchamp, Frida Kahlo, Vincent van Gogh and Jackson Pollock. The project took the familiar form of a panel discussion, wherein the artist spirits responded to a series of questions prepared by Vallance. At the end of the program, the spirits responded to questions from the audience as well.
Writings
Vallance has written for such publications and journals as Artforum, Art issues, L.A. Weekly, Juxtapoz, Frieze and Fortean Times, and has published nine books: Blinky the Friendly Hen; The World of Jeffrey Vallance: Collected Writings 1978–1994; Christian Dinosaur; Art on the Rocks; Preserving America's Cultural Heritage; Thomas Kinkade: Heaven on Earth; My Life with Dick; Relics and Reliquaries; and The Vallance Bible (2011).
Academia
Since the mid-1980, Vallance has taught various forms of art at
He currently teaches a course called "The Art of Infiltration" at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), in Santa Clarita, California.
References
- Jeffrey Vallance: "Relics and Reliquaries" at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Art in America, March 2010.
- Jeffrey Vallance at Margo Leavin Gallery[permanent dead link], by Jan Tumlir, Artforum, April 2008. (Via BNet.)
- Van Gogh, Kahlo Speak from Beyond the Grave at Frieze Art Fair, October 19, 2010.
- Blinky the Friendly Hen at Best Hoaxes and Pranks, January 2009.
- Painted into a Corner?, a review of Thomas Kinkade: Heaven on Earth at CalState Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center, by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2004.
External links
- Myths of the Raven: The myths and meanings of the Tower of London ravens, Fortean Times, November 2007.
- Artist Talk: a lecture at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA. Video/Slide show. The artist gives an hourlong discussion of his career, Spring 2009.
- Distinguished Alumni Page at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Lapp of the Gods, by Jeffrey Vallance, Fortean Times, January 2005.
- Page at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, New York, USA
- Description of some of Vallance's works Archived March 26, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
- Jeffrey Vallance at Kadist Art Foundation
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