Georgina Valverde
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Little Pussy Cat, Come ‘ere, hanging from the ceiling on a piece of yarn, contrasts two elements, one kitschy and the other more nuanced. At one end of a piece of foam in the shape of a fat crescent moon is a cartoonish orange flower cut from felt. Hanging beside the foam is a cluster of crocheted yarn interwoven with twine in pale yellow, blue, and tan; with no identifiable function, this object jokes a bit on Valverde’s use of the craft idiom (she does all the crocheting herself). At the same time, the cluster’s supple colors and lines and its mix of curving horizontals and hanging pieces are subtle enough to encourage close viewing. As the piece twists in the gallery’s shifting air currents, at times the foam provides a backdrop for the crocheted element, underlining the differences between them and offering a little lesson in seeing–reminding the viewer how rewarding it can be to look closely at everyday objects.
Born in Mexico City in 1962, Valverde studied ballet and Mexican folk dance as a child–and “didn’t feel that those were dichotomies.” Her mother played classical piano, and her father was an amateur painter (he taught her to paint) who made his living restoring antique cars. He was “very handy,” Valverde says, making her a pair of doll sandals, for example; he also gave her and her four siblings scrap materials like wood and glue to work with. She spent three years studying dress and pattern making but also became aware of such artists as Titian by looking at her dad’s books of European painters. Her family emigrated to the United States in 1978, and Valverde moved to Chicago in 1989 after undergraduate studies in Virginia; the MCA pieces were made just after her graduation this year from the University of Illinois at Chicago with an MFA.
