This October, Lebanon Picture Frame and Fine Art Gallery is excited to announce the debut show of local artist Tina Valgenti. The general public is invited to the Artist’s Reception, October 4th from 5 to 8 PM, as part of the First Friday Art Walk of Downtown Lebanon.
Valgenti, a resident of Lebanon, PA, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts, with a concentration in Fashion Design, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She currently works as an accountant and recently completed both her MBA and CPA exams. For the artist, the seeming contrast between her artistic training and her career path finds its resolution in the centrality of narrative–from disparate elements and sources, variances are reconciled and a story emerges. This exhibit features Valgenti’s chimerical style of collage, but she is equally skilled in the medium of painted silk scarves, which feature natural designs and botanical imagery. In addition to her collection on display at LPF, she recently completed a commission for DePaul University’s Humanities Center.
Valgenti finds inspiration in fashion and art history, but filters those sources through her appreciation for travel, humor, and the surreal. Her work in paper or analogue collage mines the history of visual imagery–magazines, postcards, and discarded print materials combined with layers of matted acrylic. The effect is delicate, subtle, and complex, rendering through visual textures the beauty of imperfection and the vagaries of the artist’s hand.