Valerie Mangion
Biographical Info I was raised in the Chicago suburbs. I got my BFA at University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. Then I lived in the city of Chicago for two years. The Chicago Imagists were a major influence early on. From Chicago, I lived in Seattle for eight years, during which time I became an animal rights activist and vegetarian. I did a lot of angry, political paintings about man’s inhumanity to animals. I moved back to the Midwest to attend graduate school at UW-Madison, WI, where I received my MFA in 1993. I met my husband during graduate school. We bought a 56-acre farm in the Driftless region of Southwest Wisconsin. We’ve lived outside of Boaz, WI for 28 years, with cats, dogs and, in the past, horses to keep us company. I still mostly paint narrative images about animals. I think of my oil on panel paintings as a mix of surrealism, magic realism and midwest regionalism. I have been in a lot of group, one and two person shows over the years. One of my paintings was made fun of on Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live – a career highlight! Currently I am represented by GOWA, Gallery of Wisconsin Art (now an on-line gallery only). I will be in a five-woman show with other WVA and fellow Driftless artists at the Rountree Gallery in Platteville, WI, in fall 2023, called “Kindred Spirits: Art From the Driftless.”
Level South Central Wisconsin Chapter
Membership Type Professional