Bryan Valenzuela

Building images with the written word is my primary visual focus. For well over a decade I've been aiming to perfect a unique drawing technique involving the atomization of the figure by carving out shape and light with handwritten text. Paragraphs, sentences, phrases, and fragments are all the DNA of my work. Similar to this DNA concept, the language acts as both form and content. As form, the text delineates figures and subjects layer upon layer as shading. Words varying in size from the miniscule and unreadable, to large and bold are used in a manner similar to crosshatching with pen and ink. Though virtually unnoticeable from afar, once the viewer steps closer to each work they are engulfed in a barrage of words intermingled with other mixed media elements such as needle and thread, acrylic paint, and collage. As content, the language provides a sense of the inherent information and associations, metaphors and meanings that act as a meditation on the image itself.

Recent winner of both the Leff-Davis Fund for Visual Artists and a Best in Show prize at the 2015 California State Fair Fine Art Exhibition, I was chosen by the City of Sacramento in 2016 to create a large scale public art piece for the new Golden 1 Center in downt...