About
Valerie Auersperg is an Austrian artist living in New Zealand who creates acrylic paintings as well as digital drawings depicting pop-surreal scenes in a colourful, dream-like manner.
Auersperg explores the world inside and around herself, pairing the expected with the unusual. She focuses on themes such as memory (real and perceived), pop culture and mental health. Her work is a whimsical commentary on how our inner journeys, moods and situations are something that connects us.
Auersperg’s paintings always start with a memory, a mood or just a nostalgic feeling. Living far away from where she grew up informs these recollections of home and comfort. She then weaves these into scenes of optimism and escapism adding little delightful details such as smiley faces, flamingos, balloons, 90s memorabilia, etc to her paintings, aiming to evoke a feeling of joy and wonder and put a smile on the observer’s face.
She starts sketching her ideas digitally, creating the composition on an iPad before transferring the work to a canvas. This allows her to play around with colours and placements before painting the final piece. In addition to painting on canvas, she has also completed a number of murals in private residences, offices and public spaces as well as created sculptures for display in Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.
Auersperg is a self-taught artist, having worked in fashion and animation, as well as advertising previously. Yet art was always her passion and side hustle. Then, finally, in 2020, she finally took the leap to become a full-time artist. She has had exhibitions in San Francisco, CA and Auckland, NZ as well as been featured in various global virtual exhibitions such as PxP Contemporary’s ‘WILD’ (curated by Alicia Puig), Sergio Gomez’ ‘Isolation Chronicles’, Create Magazine’s ‘Healing from Within’ (curated by Tam Gryn), and Beautiful Things NZ’ ‘The People We See’. She has also been featured in PIKCHUR Magazine, Envison Arts magazine, Fennec Home Magazine and New Visionary Magazine, has been profiled on Create! Magazine’s online blog as well as The Big Idea NZ website, and has been part of the WWF Whale Tail trail in Auckland in 2022.
Media
Creative Matters Podcast Interview | creativematters.co.nz/post/creative-matters-with-valerie-auersperg | September 2022
The Big Idea NZ | thebigidea.nz/stories/whale-of-a-time | February 2022
New Visionary | visionaryartcollective.com/magazine | January 2022
Fennec Home Magazine | issuu.com/supermarketnewsnz/docs/ff_home_2021 | August 2021
Envision Arts Magazine | envisionartshow.com/envision-magazine | July 2021
Create! Magazine Blog Feature | createmagazine.com/blog/2021-1-19-interview-with-valerie-auersperg | January 2021
PIKCHUR Magazine | pikchurmag.com | August 2020
