Elisa Valenti

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 Fauvist 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.

Growing up in a culture where body-positivity did not yet exist and worthiness could only be equated with thinness, it wasn’t until Valenti started painting bodies that looked like hers that her journey of self love began.

Utilizing arresting colors evocative of the Fauves and Cubist color-blocking, Valenti adapts two iconic styles pioneered by men and flips the gaze inward. As well, she draws inspiration from her mother’s career as a lingerie sample-maker and 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.

Based in Queens, New York, Valenti is a daughter of immigrants. She studied fine arts and art history at the High School of Art and Design. She holds a Doctorate of Pharmacy from St. John’s University.

(b. 1982, New York, US) lives and works in New York. She graduated with a Pharm.D. from St. John’s University in 2006, and is widely regarded as one of New York’s leading emerging, self-taught figurative painters.

The 41 year-old artist has had work exhibited at Superfine Fair and The Other Art Fair (2019/21/23), as well as group exhibitions with Pop-Up Home (LA) (2020-22), PxP Contemporary, (2020), Untitled Gallery (2019), Showfields (2020), Curare (DE) (2021) and On Center Gallery. (2019) Valenti debuted a solo exhibition at Established Gallery titled “Radical Worthiness.” And most recently, had her work represented with UNREPD Gallery in Los Angeles. In 2022, Valenti was part of a two woman show debuting in Australia for the first time with Art2Muse Gallery in Sydney. Her work has been showcased in publications the likes of Glamour, Create, Pikchur, and Studio Visit Magazines.

Her latest work, “The Faded Line Between Dream and Reality” released March 2023. And her paintings debut for the third time in Germany, in Hamburg as part of "Treasure Island” a group show with Helium Cowboy Gallery, March 2023. Valenti has an upcoming group show entitled The Passion Project with The Art Center Highland Park in Chicago though June 2023 and will also be showing in Brooklyn with The Other Art Fair May, 2023. Valenti has is set to present her work in a solo show in France in 2024.

Her works have been collected extensively by collectors worldwide.