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French artist VALERIE SURY is a painter, sculptor and illustrator. She graduated from Montpellier Fine Arts School in France with complementary courses from Nantes Fine Arts School. Her work was shown at prestigious exhibitions in Montpellier, Prague, Brussels, to the Comfort Moderne exhibition in Poitiers, and the famous Galerie du Triangle in Bordeaux.

During the Itineraires d'artistes Forum, organized by the Aquitaine Regional Council her sketchbook is awarded a special distinction by the Jury. At the same occasion The Rotary Club buys a portfolio comprised of illustrations, prints and silkscreens.

In 2000 she’s chosen to be part of an artist residency at Lakeside Studios in Michigan. Her work is further shown in full at the Lakeside Gallery. Some of these works taken from this exhibit plus some new artworks are put together a year later in a joint exhibit specially organized for the Mars Gallery in Chicago.

Presently she is showing in different galeries her new works called Art Kills Texas. Comprised of 16 pieces, paintings and papier mâché sculptures, these artworks were greatly inspired by her trip at the 2005 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin Texas. Back home in Montréal she used her sketches from the festival to create an art book of artsy and edgy comics. From this art book emerged 90 cm x 90 cm paintings and meduim size sculptures.

Inspired by artists like Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Nikki de St-Phalle. Her acrylic paintings sometimes borrow the idea of ex-voto paintings using contemporary pop iconography taken for the most part from American culture. Some of her work shows a strong influence from the cartoonesque world of the Asian Manga, Mexican popular art and global subcultures. The result is challenging visuals, at times almost childish, as well as a mix of French and English views giving a unique perspective on the American experience.

Her paintings and papier mâché dolls carry the intensity linked with Art Brut through complex compositions and meticulous application of textures and colors. Working in papier mâché lets Sury create her forms quickly taking on quirky figurative shapes reminiscent of Niki de St. Phalle or Louise Bourgeois.