reviews

“Reading her sculptures is like sinking your teeth into a novel. You get completely caught up in her work. She takes hundreds of castaways, found objects, whatever you want to call them, and combines them all in an assemblage. The result is complex, complicated, and a thing of beauty. So that what was found in the trash pile or on a flea market table now takes on an enduring permanence and new identity as a work of art.”

— Cathy Viksjo, The Times of Trenton

“Ms. Young, the assemblage artist, has so much fun, the viewer is guaranteed to have a good time too. … ‘Harmonica Virgins’ is an eye-catcher, inspired by her son’s mishearing of a radio story about the ‘harmonic convergence’ of the 1980s. Halos over the virgins’ heads are made of clock springs bejeweled with Zodiac signs and planetary orbs revolving around a sun face at the center. Their bodies are covered with celestial symbols and beads, and one set of disembodied hands holds a mandolin.”

— Ilene Dube, Time Off

“Let your imagination take you over to Valerie Young’s mixed media and found-object works, ‘Harmonica Virgins’ and ‘Esther IV—Home Movies.’ These are pure fun. What she’s done in these sculptures is put together unrelated objects, based on a theme, and then unify and transform them.”

— Janet Purcell, The Times of Trenton