Valerie Large - "Maze" 2010
various papers, thread
14 cm x 13 cm
Valerie Large is a London-based contemporary artist associated with Blackhorse Lane Studios in Walthamstow, East London, where she works as part of the Barbican Arts Group Trust (BAGT) artist community. She has been involved with BAGT since 1974 and has previously held studios at Sycamore Street EC1 and Hertford Road N1 before moving to Blackhorse Lane Studios.
Large lives in Leytonstone and is known particularly for abstract wall-based sculptures, installations and relief works made from paper, fabric and stitched materials. Her practice has evolved over several decades, with paper becoming a central material from the 1980s onward. She describes her use of paper as a way to experience nature “in a tactile way,” with forms that recall; algae, fungus, cells and bacteria
In her 2024 solo exhibition In Circles at BAGT's Atrium Space London N1, Large explored organic forms built from stitched canvas sections twisted and connected into relief structures. She explained that she wanted to create “amorphous” forms suggestive of living organisms and growth processes rather than recognisable objects.
A notable earlier work by Valerie Large is Space Cut, included in the limited-edition artist publication Tetrad Pamphlets Vol. II, a boxed collection of fold-out artist prints and experimental paper works alongside artists including Tom Phillips and Ian Breakwell.