Victoria May

As a mixed media artist, Victoria’s work results in objects and installations that integrate contrasting materials and methods, creating a “different perspective between one’s surroundings and ordinary materials”. Victoria was an artist in residence in 2012 at Jentel Artist Residency Program (Banner, WY) and has also been honored with a Rydell Fellowship in 2010.

Victoria serves as a guest lecturer and panelist, and presents gallery talks at local arts nonprofit organizations, and share her inspiration through teaching photography and book arts at several local universities and arts organizations.

She received her B.A. in Design from University of California, Los Angeles, and M.F.A. from San Jose State University.

STATEMENT: An interest in tension and dichotomy fuels my artwork. Continually I attempt to merge the delicate with the strong, to seduce and repel, to obscure and reveal, and to combine the hand and the machine. A conceptual tension arises between beauty and darkness in my work, alluding to the fundamental struggles inherent in the human condition. Using the framework of cultural constructs, such as abstraction, codification, circumscription, my work highlights the absurdity they often impose. By pitting the organic or visceral against the institutional, I seek to reveal a dark humor or tender fragility in the seeming contortions that often underpin our lives.

I often rely on raw materials and found objects to function as would text or imagery, allowing the history, function, metaphorical value and/or sensibility of each element to contribute to the work’s intent, along with my own investment of labor. Meticulous handwork transforms humble materials into the precious, mirroring how our own ephemeral lives become precious through our own personal toils.