Valerie Potter
The work of Valerie Potter (b.1954) came about due to Roger Cardinal’s seminal Outsider Art book. Potter found his book in a reduced book section, and upon reading it, decided to send him a series of drawings. Cardinal put on Potter’s first solo exhibition at the University of Kent, where he was working at the time. Her work was then introduced to Monika Kinley who turned it down at first, but once Cardinal had endorsed it, she began to showcase around the world.
Potter’s embroideries have been made over a period of 34 years. They have become more complicated over the years, with writing only appearing on them for the past 29 years. All are hand-stitched, with a pencil drawing at the beginning taking four-five hours to draw onto the fabric. The drawing is not planned, and Potter just draws whatever pops into her head, as well as her thoughts and emotions from that day. She likes having a blank canvas and being able to fill it. It takes around one month for a piece to be finished, working for two hours a day.
The line embroidery works are intermingled with cross-stitch works and graph paper drawings, and when Potter gets bored she switches between these. The last of her embroideries is always her favourite until she is part way through her next one, then her favourite always changes to that one. Potter’s work is now in the Musgrave Kinley Outsider Art Collection in Manchester, the Haines Collection in London, the Moscow Museum of Outsider Art, the Museum of Everything, as well as several other collections.
EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
2020 Autobiographic, Gallery of Everything, London
2019 Outsider Art Fair, Metropolitan Pavilion, New York (with Jennifer Lauren Gallery)
2014 Bold Vision: Outsiders in Black and White, Julian Hartnoll Gallery (curated by Vivienne Roberts), London
2006 Inner Worlds Outside, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1998 Art Unsolved, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
1985 Paintings by Valerie Potter, University of Kent (put on by Roger Cardinal)
