2023 Autumn Art Release
Valenti’s newest body of work takes her paintings into three dimension as she paints with clay to create a collection of relief sculptures.
“Fat Barbie A New Classic, leads the viewer through over 20 works that weave a story of past and present, allowing a peek into Valenti’s lush world of voluptuous figures, an homage to unrepresented body types, and her fascination with classical and paleolithic themes. But this time she paints with clay creating movement and vitality through graceful still figures. ”
You’re So Brave Barbie
She’s Giving Paleolithic Goddess Barbie
“In this collection Valenti provocatively and with a bit of sarcasm and humor, titles each Barbie with names and words taken directly from her own experiences and wonders what life would be like if Fat Barbie existed when she was growing up. ”
If it Involves Pasta, Count Me in Barbie
This Fat Barbie has a cupcake in one hand and a Trader Joe’s bag in the other ready for your pasta party.
Being Fat is Not Bad Karma Barbie
Food is My Love Language Barbie
This Fat Barbie extends her love with grapes, figs, strawberries, cherries, kiwis and plums.
“Some of the titles are shocking but Valenti wants the viewer to speak them out loud and to feel their intensity. ”
But You Have Such a Pretty Face Barbie
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If you have interest in any of the featured artworks, visit the sculpture gallery.
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Putting Together All the Pieces
“The light takes your eye across the canvas as though to wash away the figures long harbored feelings of obscurity and self-doubt. The Barbie doll representing years of comparison and insecurity lays unclothed and vulnerable, set aside-no longer a focal point, releasing her from its grips and allowing her to own her self-image-never giving that power away again.”
“Putting Together All the Pieces, a two-piece diptych painting features a reclined figure in Valenti’s signature color-block painting style. She rests her head upon her hand in tranquility surrounded by objects- the puzzle pieces that finally come together to release years of heartache, grief, and emotional labor. The last piece fastened in place fills her heart with the clarity she always wanted and never new she needed. ”
You’d Be Gorgeous If You Lost 30lbs Barbie
Reminiscent of Putting Together All the Pieces, but with her bubble gum
Average Size of American Women Barbie
A new study published in the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education reveals that the average size of an American women is now between a 16 to 18. Yet we are forced to squeeze into size 00-4 Barbie size standards.
“Each relief sculpture is encased in an ornate frame and tells a story of a modern, unretouched, gracefully aging Fat Barbie. A Barbie we wish we had to play with in the past and one that in 25,000 years will continue to represent who we are today.”
Her Value is Not Measured in Pounds Barbie
Her pounds are on display in the most graceful way because she knows her value remains constant, even if her weight or size doesn’t.
Fat- Not Ugly Barbie
adjective/ plump, having a large amount of excess flesh, well filled-out, thick in tone and quality, well stocked. Explain to me where the word ugly is in this definition. This Barbie will wait.
“Fat Barbie defies the contemporary cultural obsession with plastic and gives us Not Made of Plastic Barbie, three graces highlighting the dissipating notion of aging gracefully.”
Not Made of Plastic Barbie
Fat Barbie defies the contemporary cultural obsession with plastic and gives us Not Made of Plastic Barbie, three graces highlighting the dissipating notion of aging gracefully.
If you have interest in any of the featured artworks, email info@elisavalentistudio.com. These pieces will be available November 12th
Statuesque
The Fat Barbies are statuesque. They are inspired by classical sculptures, a doll and a goddess. They display dignity, shapeliness and stillness.
“Valenti’s Fat Barbie embodies the curvaceous fertile mounds of the Venus of Willendorf, the soft, sumptuous rolls of Renaissance bodies and the stoic beauty of Classical sculptures to create A New Classic.”
Fat Barbie
Fat. Barbie, Beautiful
Work of Art Barbie
Big Booty Barbie
Color Block Renaissance
This painting is a milestone piece; the first time Valenti introduced her now signature color block technique.
If you have interest in any of the featured artworks, visit the sculpture gallery.
“Breaking Generational Trauma Barbie depicts three figures on a plain white vessel. This vessel contains the metaphorical pain of the women who have come before us who have endured and struggled and in turn cast their trauma on generations after them. ”
Breaking Generational Trauma Barbie
“Your pain didn't start with you, but it can end with you.” It ends here for Fat Barbie.
“The three engraved figures represent healing of the generations of the past, of themselves and of ones to come.”
Not Here to Negotiate Her
Self-Worth Barbie
This Fat Barbie is not giving that power away to anyone.
Leaving Her Legacy Barbie
Thirteen voluptuous figures reach, twist and revel around the vase-like sculpture, honoring their own vessels.
“Valenti continues to demonstrate her fixation with human form, breadth and volume. She introduces Fat Barbie, a new character into her world of self-portraiture, continuing her mission of painting and sculpting bodies that “look like mine” . She continues to paint the ambiguous face and focuses all her attention on the body-creating a looking glass for viewers to see themselves in the work. ”
Her Body Looks Like Mine Barbie
The moment this Fat Barbie realized her body looks like Willendorf- that this reflection has value, that her body is not broken and has existed in this shape for thousands of years.
Fat Friend Barbie
The Fat Friend we always needed.
“Along with framed relief sculptures, she creates free-standing fat sculptures; her version of the paleolithic fertility goddesses but without the connotation to fertility. She prefers to call them “authenticity goddesses”. And creates them playfully pretending to be that paleolithic person from long ago, sculpting with the rich magic they were intended to embody.”
“Do you know why the sculptures have a layer of gold applied to the bottom? They stand on gold hidden from the viewer because sometimes we need a reminder that our beauty exists even if others fail to see it. ”
About the Artist
Elisa Valenti is a self-taught contemporary figurative painter whose works delight in the beauty and vigor of real, luscious bodies.
Valenti’s paintings are a sensuous celebration of form. Voluptuous figures reach, twist and revel in a dance across the canvas, honoring their vessels.
The bodies Valenti paints serve as a looking glass for those whose own bodies have been underrepresented in modern and contemporary art.
She draws inspiration from her mother’s career as a master dress maker, venerating the celestial mounds and valleys of the female form. Each brushstroke highlighting the curve of a hip or roll of flesh is an act of defiance – a celebration of radical worthiness.
If you have questions about any of the above artworks, visit the sculpture gallery.