VALERI LARKO

Many American painters and photographers have taken on the industrial landscape as a subject for visual analysis. In a number of instances, the large-scale mechanical elements of industrial culture have been exalted and glorified. Charles Sheeler's images of the River Rouge complex, Oscar Bluemner's Cubist-inspired urban landscapes, and the many Precisionist images of the early twentieth century have become integral to the American art canon.


Throughout this century, artists have been drawn to the industrial complexes, active and inactive, that are scattered along the northeast corridor from Boston to Washington. In particular, New Jerseys industrial offerings have attracted the critical attention of pundits, comedians, politicians, environmentalists and artists. For better or worse, the Garden State is known to many as an expansive industrial park. Often, the industrial structures are considered necessary evils.


Valeri Larko, in her own painterly approach, documents the industrial New Jersey landscape of the late twentieth century, where everything is not streamlined, efficient, or in good working order. Many of the monolithic tanks, stacks, ducts and vents show signs of benign neglect. The rust-laden patinas have become accepted elements of the landscape. Like many public monuments, these man-made structures symbolize processes and activities that have lost their original sense of purpose.


Unlike some of her predecessors, Larko has not been commissioned to pay homage to the glories of industry. Her paintings are less about celebration and more about observation. She ventures out on her own missions to discover, organize and represent the myriad industrial tableaux. Ms. Larko assumes the role of the industrial archaeologist, carefully researching and observing her subjects. Her entire process is equally important as the finished painting.


Painting in nature is a self-imposed activity that exposes the artists to tetanus, stray dogs and the uninvited attention of strangers. Larko confronts the industrial New Jersey landscape head on - not as a critic, but as an observer; she withholds judgment.

Michael Bzdak
Curator, Johnson & Johnson

July 1996