Description

Catalogue of the exhibition Valerie Brathwaite. A Flowing Walk of Her Own , presented at Malba between November 7, 2025 and February 2, 2026.

Trained in the United Kingdom, where she quickly integrated into the contemporary scene, Brathwaite settled in Caracas in 1969. There she arrived stimulated by an artistic scene in which the search for new trends—abstraction, kinetic art and then conceptual art—was strongly encouraged, which allowed her to have creative exchanges with colleagues of the stature of Gego or Mercedes Pardo, as well as with critics and curators such as Lourdes Blanco and Marta Traba.

Brathwaite was recognized early on for her drawings, prints, and sculptures imbued with organic and sensual reminiscences that, in her own words, originated from her “fascination with the overwhelming beauty of mountains, rocks, stones, exotic plants, women’s breasts and legs, male torsos, sunsets, and the marvelous bodies of animals.” She expressed this in 1972 when she publicly presented her abstract drawings, solidifying her presence in a field that received her with widespread acclaim and in which she maintained a constant presence from then on.

This exhibition takes its title from a review that critic Roberto Guevara wrote of Brathwaite's solo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Caracas in 1975. It includes a series of works on paper produced between 1972 and 2002 and a group of soft sculptures that the artist has been creating since 2004. In this "self-flowing movement," not only the independence of her work but also the pioneering nature of her production is evident. Through diverse media and a subtle interplay between abstraction and figuration, Brathwaite offers a deeply ecological, feminine perspective, through which she merges the forms of nature to express the bond that unites and permeates all living things.

Authors
Rodrigo Moura
Alejandra Aguado
Ken Pérez Morales

Technical specifications
Published by: Malba
Year: 2025
Type: Exhibition catalog
Binding: Paperback
Dimensions: 24 x 17 cm
Weight: 320 gr
Language: Bilingual - Spanish / English
Pages: 136
ISBN: 978-631-91253-6-8