According to the New York Times, Valeri Larko is the self-proclaimed “Queen of Rust”. If only there was a way to let you all sit down for a chat with Valeri. She is an internationally accomplished artist who has been painting since the 80s. When you experience Larko’s art, you certainly leave feeling in awe of her technique and skills and intrigued to know more. But only after having the privilege of chatting with her, do you really get to understand the depth and meaning behind her and her work. I can’t wait to divulge. Read on, read on!
Valeri Larko painting on location inside the Turbine Building at the Glenwood Power Plant. Photo Credit- K.O. Photography
Are you originally from New York?
I was born in Freeport, NY USA and I moved with my parents and older brother to New Jersey when I was 3 years old. I loved NJ and thought I would never leave. Painting Jersey’s industrial sublime was my stock in trade.
I met my husband in 2002 and a few years later we moved to New Rochelle, NY. I’ve been living and painting in this area since the move. Luckily, I’m just 8 minutes from the Bronx and I found so much of what I loved about painting on location in NJ in the Bronx and beyond.
How did you start out?
I took an art class in High School and I loved it. After that, I took more art classes and then when it was time to go to college, I decided to pursue art. I took art classes at a community college to start, but the more I studied, the more I fell in love with painting. My first oil painting class was at Morris Community College in Randolph, NJ when I was 19 and it was love at first brush stroke. I had found my vocation in life and knew I had to go to art school to acquire the skills I needed to become a better artist.
Why landscapes?
I actually went to school to be a figure painter!
Oh really?
An early portrait painting by Valeri, Laundry Room Self Portrait, 1988, oil on canvas 38” x 26”
In the early stages of my career I liked painting portraits, but it was difficult to find people willing to pose. The seed was there though, I knew I loved painting from life. So in 1986 when I finished all my school I moved to Jersey City and I thought, what am I going to paint? So I painted this vista near me and that’s what got me started with urban painting.
Why do you paint on location?
I’ve been painting on location for 35 years now. I consider myself a visual story teller and that’s one of the reasons I paint on location. The people I meet on site add so much to my understanding of the places I paint, they tell me the history of these places and share their personal stories about working and living in the areas that I paint. As the old saying goes, it’s not the place, it’s the people — but for me it’s actually both. We build, we destroy, we rebuild. So I’m also trying to capture some of the places that tell us a lot about a cultural moment; they’re not going to last, so I want to capture them before they’re gone forever.
So you never paint from photos?
I can paint from photographs no problem! If you see a figure or a car or a truck on a highway, I painted that from a photo because they don’t stand still long enough to paint from life. It’s the meeting of people and finding out the history of the places I paint that makes the process engaging. I’ve met so many interesting people on location including movie directors, musicians, urban explorers, and many more, all of whom have added to my understanding of the places I paint. Even though there’s not a lot of people in my paintings, they’re always there in one way or another.
Valeri Larko painting on location at the "Glenwood Power Plant, Substation", Oil on linen, 20” x 16”, 2024 Photo Credit: Jeremy Huff.
Tell me about your process.
It has developed over the years as my paintings became more ambitious. When I’m scouting out new sites to paint, I bring a sketchpad and a roller ball pen and I’ll make quick sketches, take a few pics and let things percolate for a while. Once I find something that appeals to me, I’ll do a quick colour study in oils, which helps me figure out my composition and what size canvas to stretch. I then order custom made wooden stretcher bars from Upper Canada Stretchers and when they arrive, I’ll stretch linen and apply several coats of acrylic gesso. Then I go back on site with the large canvas and start painting on location.
How long do these works take?
They’re labour intensive. Weather permitting, I usually work on two paintings in the same day; one in the morning and another in the afternoon because after 3 hours the light totally changes. I’ll set up and paint for around 3 hours, stop for a quick lunch break and then work another 3 hours on a different painting. Cloudy days are great, since the light stays consistent, so on a cloudy day I can paint for many hours on the same canvas. A large oil painting can take me 2-3 months to complete on location.
Is the whole piece done completely on location then?
About midway through the painting process, I bring the large canvas back into the studio to check the values. There’s so much illumination outdoors, so it’s important to make sure the painting looks as good indoors as it does outdoors, this usually means making some values lighter and pushing the contrast a bit. Early on I painted a lot of dark canvases before I figured this tip out! On average I do about 90-95% of my paintings on location with a small amount of work in the studio.
View from a Bridge, Jersey City, 1989, Oil on linen, 26" x 46". By 1989 this was the largest painting Larko had done on site.
Ok and what’s your process in the winter?
I call my car my paint mobile, my mobile studio. In winter, I’ll tape a watercolor block to the steering wheel for a makeshift easel or l’ll use a pochade box, which I place on lap, for small oil paintings. The other thing I like to do is finish my studies. In the winter, I’ll finish the studies I quickly blocked in during the warmer months and I’ll add the details using the large finished painting as reference. The bonus to having finished studies is these give me something smaller to sell. Not everybody can afford a large Larko and they might not have the space for it. When people see the big one, "Oh for $3500 instead of $20,000 I could have a Larko painting". The large paintings help sell the smaller ones, which are very detailed and more affordable.
Closed, Mt Vernon, NY, 2020, Oil on linen, 32” x 60 painted on location, with study, Closed, Mt Vernon, NY, (study), 2020, Oil on linen panel, 8” x 16”.
Valeri Larko and John Kuo exhibition preview at Thomas VanDyck Gallery, Brooklyn.
Tell me a bit about gallery representation
I’ve worked with a number of galleries over the years, however galleries come and go. What I learned the hard way, is it’s a good idea to work with several galleries if you have the opportunity, this way you have something to fall back on. Recently the primary gallery I was working with closed at the end of January. I loved working with the fab women who owned and operated Basin Gallery & Studios. I was very lucky that just as that gallery was closing, another gallery offered me a two-person show. I’ll be exhibiting with Thomas VanDyck Gallery in Brooklyn with a wonderful ceramic sculptor John Kuo. The show “City of Dreams” opens on March 15th and runs through April 12th.
Congratulations, it looks like it’s going to be a very cool show, I wish I could be there!
How do you decide on what to paint?
The wonderful thing about painting in the fringes of the city, is that whenever I’m driving or taking a walk, I’m always on the lookout for new subject matter. I find the world around me endlessly fascinating, anything can grab my eye, like the lights and shadows that are created when the sun filters through an old train bridge or the funny ads on billboards or the juxtaposition of nature and the built world colliding in the most unlikely of places.
Sign of the Times VXX (Size Matters), 2022, oil/panel, 10” x 10” on location
Seeing urban wildlife always makes me smile. So much of what I see has a humorous aspect and I like to explore that whenever I can. My billboard series “Sign of the Times” is a good example of this. I’ve been painting these for a while now and I like to exhibit them in a grid, this allows for some very fun juxtapositions that comment on our cultural obsessions.
Each day there’s something new to see and explore. Places that others might not give a second look at, can inspire me with the beauty that can be found in the most ordinary places.
Valeri Larko at her solo show January 2022 "Hidden in Plain Sight" at Sugarlift Gallery, Chelsea, NYC.
Any notable triumphs in your career?
My first solo museum exhibition in 1996 was at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, NJ. Since then, I’ve had 4 more solo museum exhibitions, as well as shown in numerous nonprofits art spaces and commercial art galleries. One of my biggest breaks was getting a solo exhibition in 2016 at the Bronx Museum. That show included 40 of my urban plein air landscapes, all of which were painted on location in the Bronx.
What do you find the most challenging in your work?
Bad weather lol! Gale force winds and heavy rains stop me in my tracks. Those days I do laundry or some other tasks that I've been putting off because when the weather is nice, I’d rather be painting. Truth is, l'd always rather be painting, it's my happy place. Like many, I had a rather challenging childhood and without getting into too much detail, I feel very fortunate that I found painting so early in my life. Painting has kept me sane, regardless of what is going on in the world or in my personal life.
Are you ever worried about your safety when you’re painting on location?
Many people have asked me this question, "Aren't you afraid when you're alone in an abandoned building painting for hours by yourself?" And the truth is, I'm not, and as I usually answer “if you grew up with my mama, you'd be tough too”. So, I feel like I can handle myself in just about any situation. Once in a blue moon I get someone trying to hassle me, but l have a secret weapon.
Valeri Larko painting on location "High Bridge and Overpass", Bronx, 2021, oil/linen, 28" x 70"
Oh yea?
My voice, l've got a very loud voice for a 5''1" woman and because I grew up in a challenging environment, I know how channel a bit of crazy and how to turn that on and off. I can flip out on somebody, even a dude much larger than me and they back up because they're thinking, she might be crazier than I am and I could be.
Have you had to use this a lot when painting?
There was a time where I was painting in the North Bronx; this guy comes up to me and he's looking a little raggedy around the edges. But he comes up to me and goes, "Are you a lesbian?" And I go, "What kind of a question is that?! That's none of your business!". And I was polite at this point. And then he starts saying "You're goin' to hell, you're goin' to hell." And I thought, hmmm, I've heard that before, so I said "Leave me alone sir". And every time he continued I would raise my voice a bit louder and by the end of it he was going "Stop stop!" and he walked away.
He came back a week later, walked right up to me and said "Do you still love me?". And I said, "Of course I do!" He never bothered me again lol!
You must get people interacting with you and your work a lot.
Have you ever started a work and then someone’s come and changed something?
As an insurance policy, I take photos just in case I need to finish something that’s drastically changed or disappeared. Generally, things don't change that much, and I can fake it. People think I paint exact replicas from reality but they're not, they're Valeri's reality. I have no problem changing something if I think it'll make a better painting. And that's the other thing from working from life, l'm not stuck working from a photo in a studio. While on location, I can grab something that is outside of the picture plane and add it or change the colors etc. In the end, no one cares about the reference, just the final painting.
Top Dollar, 2015, oil/linen, 28” x 72” , painted on location in the North Bronx. You can see the boat, the mattresses and the better graffiti on the truck body above the mattresses all thanks to graffiti artists Dera & Smog and Saet christened the boat.
One time I was working on this painting in the North Bronx, kind of a scrap yard. I was about half way through the painting, when one day a large pristine boat shows up. I have weeds, trucks, and graffiti and now I've got this white pristine boat and I had to decide whether to add it or not. While I was mulling this new situation over, a graf writer comes around the barrier and puts his tag on the boat in big bold letters. And I thought, "Now it fits!". I wound up adding the boat.
A similar thing happened on the other side of the painting, someone dumped a couple of mattresses and I thought that’s a bummer, but as I kept looking at them, I decided they added another point of interest, so I wound up adding those too. Additionally, the truck body above the mattresses wasn’t very interesting, but it was what I had to work with. Luckily some new graffiti friends, asked me if they could paint over what was there and I said sure. After they were done, it was so much better, all of these changes were fortunate and that’s the beauty and challenge of painting on location.
Valeri on our video chat live from her studio, complete with several angles and an atmospheric echo — a sensational call nonetheless
What are some things you’ve learnt along the way with experience?
Instead of seeing something as a problem, I say, how do I figure this out? With this one painting in particular, there was this light coming through an old train bridge that created these wonderful shadows, and it was really challenging to paint these on site. Then I figured it out, the secret was putting the big shapes down first. Another secret is getting on site about a half hour early before the light is perfect, mix both the lights and dark colours up before hand and then paint as fast I can until the light changes. Work from the big shapes, nail those down, then go back the next day, go again and again.
One major thing that has changed between my older works and my newer works, is that l've figured out how to lighten my paintings up. Midway through my painting process, I take the canvas into my studio and make sure my lights are light enough. My current paintings have a lot more contrast than my earlier work. I'm not saying my earlier work was bad, but it was very dark and moody. I’ve lightened up since then.
Also, l've become a better colourist. I enhance colours all the time. I also add a little colour between the shadow and the light area, if you were to see them up close, I use a complimentary colour between the shadow and the light area. It’s subtle, however it makes the surface have a bit more vibrancy.
Large work painted on location with the finished study completed in Larko’s studio.
Underpass, Beechwood Ave, New Rochelle, 2020, Oil on linen, 30” x 60”
Underpass, Beechwood Ave (Study), 2020, Oil on Arches oil paper, 14" x 30"
What do you hope your audience sees in your work?
I don't want my paintings to be a haiku, I want them to be a novella. I want you to come back to them and see things you missed the first time. I’d also like viewers to see the beauty in the world around us, take a second look at the beautiful light streaming through the struts of a bridge or the way rust can animate a surface. The world around us is endlessly fascinating and that’s what I try to capture when I go out to paint.
Do you connect a lot with others in the art world? Collectors etc?
It’s unfortunate, but I wasn’t born into money nor do I have a trust fund ha! The need to make a living has always been a big motivator. I learned early on in my art career, that every time I sold a painting it gave me the time and finances to paint another one. That led me to figure out how to build a collector base. My collectors have helped me not only to survive as an artist but also to thrive. I’d be nowhere without the wonderful people who believe in my talent and have helped me every step of the way. My collectors are still my biggest supporters and I’m very grateful for their continued belief in me and my paintings. Some collectors have 10-12 paintings!
Wow!