BLACK FLORA

Born in Goiânia, Brazil in 1962, Valéria Nascimento grew up surrounded by the exuberant Brazilian landscape that has deeply influenced her work and artistic sensibility. Initially trained as an architect, Nascimento moved to Rio after graduating in 1985, where she was introduced to clay. Fascinated by its malleability and the myriad expressions the medium offers, she shifted her career path a year later to pursue her artistic interests and experiment with ceramic techniques.

Today, Nascimento has developed a significant body of work, primarily composed of hand-modeled bisque porcelain installations. Her site-specific pieces represent a meticulously mapped ensemble of nature-inspired elements, individually hand-formed by the artist. Each resembles an ethereal mycelium landscape drawing from a confluence of inspirations rooted in the lust nature of her native environment and the urban fabrics she studied in architecture. The individual parts of her pieces are often inspired by botanical elements gathered from nature or collected from childhood memories. Whether framed on a panel or mounted directly onto walls or ceilings, her compositions are made up of organized clusters and sequences of hundreds of delicate organic shapes, whisper-thin petals, seeds, or blossom-like forms, all modeled one by one in her studio.

Since relocating to London in 1999, Nascimento’s work has become part of significant collections both private and public. She has created bespoke pieces for established institutions and public spaces such as the Rhodes Trust headquarters in Oxford, Chanel’s boutique in Paris, Skye Gyngall's Spring Restaurant in London's Somerset House, and Tiffany & Co. stores in London and Montreal. Her large-scale installations are part of the permanent designs of Boucheron’s boutiques across Europe, European cruise liners, and luxury hotels worldwide. Additionally, her work has been included in museum exhibitions at London's Victoria & Albert Museum and the Museo Historico Nacional in Río de Janeiro, Brazil.