Jeffrey Vallance
Encyclopedia
Jeffrey Karl Reese Vallance (born 25 January 1955 in Redondo Beach, California
) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles
, California.
Vallance received a BA in Art from California State University, Northridge
, in 1979, and an MFA
from the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, in 1981.
Best known for projects that blur the lines between object-making, installation
, performance
, curation and anthropological study, Vallance’s work has long challenged critics to define the artist’s unique multidisciplinary cross-pollination. Raised in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley
during that region’s transformation from a mix of agricultural and suburban communities into one enormous expanse of strip mall
s and cookie-cutter houses, much of Vallance’s early work is informed by regional iconography and pop culture, including his parents’ fascination with Polynesian
/Tiki
imagery, and, later, his stepfather’s affection for President
Richard M. Nixon.
Vallance is the leading force in a distinct version of Intervention Art
called Infiltration Art
. He creates art by interacting with real-world institutions, communities, politicians, religions, museums and pop-culture figures, tampering within bureaucratic structures to create change without creating conflict. His first public infiltration took place in 1977, when, dressed as a janitor, he sneaked into the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
and exchanged the gallery wall-socket plates with his own hand-painted versions.
Vallance’s childhood involvement with his local Lutheran church inspired much of his later interest in and depictions of religious subjects. Young Vallance was also influenced by the morbid humor of The Addams Family
and The Munsters
television shows, and the feature films The Loved One
, Harold and Maude
and Mondo Cane
(which he now describes as “a sick collection of imagery that warped my young mind”).
His first formal training came from his maternal grandfather, Norwegian folk artist Karl Reese, for whom he is (middle-)named.
Vallance’s over 80 performances have often involved interactions with foreign dignitaries, including audiences with King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga
at the Royal Palace in Nuku’alofa, Pope John Paul II
at the Vatican
, and Iceland
ic presidents Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
and Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
at Forseti Höll in Reykjavík
.
In the early 1970s, during the Cold War
, Vallance corresponded with government officials in the Soviet Union
and Red China, trading political badges with Communist Party
leaders. For his efforts, Vallance was investigated by US federal officials and earned a 12-page FBI file.
In 1983, Vallance traveled to Polynesia
in search of the myth of Tiki
. The resulting artwork, exhibited first in Los Angeles and then internationally, inspired a new genre which came to be known as Tiki Art.
In 1992, while doing volunteer work for the city-council campaign of disgraced former Washington, D.C.
mayor Marion Barry
(who had just been released from six months in federal prison for smoking crack
), Vallance curated “Splashing with Barry (Marion Barry Pool Party),” an art exhibit at Barry’s residence in the Washington View Apartments.
Other projects include creating a Richard Nixon Museum; traveling to the Vatican
, Turin
and Milan
, Italy to study Christian relics; installing an exhibit aboard a tugboat
in the Västerbotten
Maritime Museum in Umeå
, Sweden
; curating shows in the so-called fabulous museums of Las Vegas
—the Liberace Museum
, Debbie Reynolds' Hollywood Hotel and Casino, Ocean Spray Cranberry World Museum and Ron Lee's World of Clowns Museum; and initiating a campaign called “Preserving America’s Cultural Heritage”—a federal bill that would establish a benefit fund for all living visual artists in the United States. In 2004, Vallance curated the first art-world exhibition of the Painter of Light, entitled “Thomas Kinkade
: Heaven on Earth,” at CalState Fullerton
’s Grand Central Art Center
in Orange County, California
.
Vallance’s many forms of work have been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including Dakar, Senegal; Reykjavik, Iceland; Zürich, Switzerland; Milan, Italy; Paris, France; Mexico City
, Mexico
; Amsterdam
and Middelburg, Holland
; Vienna, Austria; Sydney and Tasmania, Australia; Stockholm, Sweden; London, England; and Athens, Greece. He is represented by Bernier/Eliades in Athens, Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris, Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
in New York.
’s The Cutting Edge
, which premiered experimental music videos from such musicians as R.E.M.
, The Bangles
and The Police
, and featured Vallance’s artwork. Also in 1983, Vallance appeared on NBC
’s Late Night with David Letterman
to discuss what was then his best-known project, Blinky the Friendly Hen, in which he purchased a frozen chicken from a grocery store and buried it at a Los Angeles pet cemetery, and Cultural Ties, a “mail art” project involving the exchange of neckwear
with such international dignitaries as Anwar Sadat
, King Hussein of Jordan
, Austrian president Rudolf Kirchschläger
and dozens of others.
In 1984, Vallance appeared on an episode of The Regis Philbin Show
to teach Philbin how to make art. He has also appeared in numerous European and Asian arts and culture documentaries.
Having created album-cover artwork for several early-’80s punk bands including Monitor, Vallance was hired by Grammy-winning art director Kevin Reagan to create art for the cover of singer-songwriter Peter Case
’s album Six-Pack of Love (Geffen) in 1992.
Vallance also created an onstage backdrop for the band Oingo Boingo
which was used on tour and seen on The Joan Rivers Show
.
for installation art. In 2001, he received a Stiftelsen Framtidens Kultur (Foundation Culture of the Future) grant to curate a performance festival at the Ice Hotel
in northern Sweden
. In 2000, he was conferred with the royal title of Honorary Noble by the Tongan National Center, Nuku’alofa, Tonga, and also received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Otis College of Art and Design
, Los Angeles.
, contributing stories to the UK’s Fortean Times
and leading ghost tours of the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California
.
Vallance’s interest in the paranormal was piqued by his paternal grandmother, a Long Beach, California
, psychic who once appeared on Art Linkletter's House Party
, and his maternal great-uncle Emil Knudsen
, a world-renowned Norwegian psychic who was often enlisted by police and private citizens to find missing persons, dead bodies and lost objects throughout the world.
Vallance’s paranormal research projects include Bigfoot
, the Shroud of Turin
, the Holy Lance
, ghosts of dead US presidents, the Ravens of the Tower of London
and the Loch Ness Monster
.
For a project at the Frieze Art Fair
in London, Vallance assembled psychic mediums to channel the spirits of five famous dead artists: Leonardo da Vinci
, Marcel Duchamp
, Frida Kahlo
, Vincent van Gogh
and Jackson Pollock
. The project took the familiar form of a panel discussion, wherein the artist spirits responded to a series of questions prepared by Vallance. At the end of the program, the spirits responded to questions from the audience as well.
; Umeå University
(Sweden); the University of Texas at San Antonio
; the University of Tasmania
(Australia), California State University Channel Islands; and the University of California, Santa Barbara
.
He currently teaches a course called “The Art of Infiltration” at California Institute of the Arts
(CalArts), in Valencia, California
.
Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of...
) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California.
Vallance received a BA in Art from California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge
California State University, Northridge is a public university in Northridge, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, California, United States....
, in 1979, and an MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
from the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, in 1981.
Best known for projects that blur the lines between object-making, installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, performance
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, curation and anthropological study, Vallance’s work has long challenged critics to define the artist’s unique multidisciplinary cross-pollination. Raised in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
during that region’s transformation from a mix of agricultural and suburban communities into one enormous expanse of strip mall
Strip mall
A strip mall is an open-area shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front...
s and cookie-cutter houses, much of Vallance’s early work is informed by regional iconography and pop culture, including his parents’ fascination with Polynesian
Polynesian culture
Polynesian culture refers to the indigenous peoples' culture of Polynesia who share common traits in language, customs and society. Chronologically, the development of Polynesian culture can be divided into four different historical eras:...
/Tiki
Tiki
Tiki refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean. The term is also used in Māori mythology where Tiki is the first man, created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond – she seduced him...
imagery, and, later, his stepfather’s affection for President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Richard M. Nixon.
Vallance is the leading force in a distinct version of Intervention Art
Intervention art
Intervention Art is art which enters a situation and attempts to change the existing conditions there.Intervention art may attempt to change economic or political situations, or may attempt to make people aware of a condition that they previously had no knowledge of...
called Infiltration Art
Infiltration Art
Infiltration Art is a branch of Intervention Art in which artists collaborate with institutions, communities, politicians, religions, museums and pop-culture figures outside of the traditional art world...
. He creates art by interacting with real-world institutions, communities, politicians, religions, museums and pop-culture figures, tampering within bureaucratic structures to create change without creating conflict. His first public infiltration took place in 1977, when, dressed as a janitor, he sneaked into the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
and exchanged the gallery wall-socket plates with his own hand-painted versions.
Vallance’s childhood involvement with his local Lutheran church inspired much of his later interest in and depictions of religious subjects. Young Vallance was also influenced by the morbid humor of The Addams Family
The Addams Family
The Addams Family is a group of fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. As named by Charles Addams, the Addams Family characters include Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Lurch, Grandmama, Wednesday, Pugsley, and Thing....
and The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
television shows, and the feature films The Loved One
The Loved One
The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy is a short satirical novel by British novelist Evelyn Waugh about the funeral business in Los Angeles, the British expatriate community in Hollywood, and the film industry.-Conception:...
, Harold and Maude
Harold and Maude
Harold and Maude is a 1971 American dark comedy film directed by Hal Ashby and released by Paramount Pictures. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama, with a plot that revolves around the exploits of a young man intrigued with death, Harold...
and Mondo Cane
Mondo cane
Mondo cane is a documentary written and directed by Italian filmmakers Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti. The film consists of a series of travelogue vignettes that provide glimpses into cultural practices around the world with the intention to shock or surprise Western film...
(which he now describes as “a sick collection of imagery that warped my young mind”).
His first formal training came from his maternal grandfather, Norwegian folk artist Karl Reese, for whom he is (middle-)named.
Vallance’s over 80 performances have often involved interactions with foreign dignitaries, including audiences with King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga
Tonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
at the Royal Palace in Nuku’alofa, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
at the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, and Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
ic presidents Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth President of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. In addition to being both Iceland's and Europe's first female president, she was the world's first democratically elected female head of state...
and Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is the fifth and current President of Iceland. He has served as President since 1996; he was unopposed in 2000, re-elected for a third term in 2004, and re-elected unopposed for a fourth term in 2008. He is the longest-serving left-wing president in the history of...
at Forseti Höll in Reykjavík
Reykjavík
Reykjavík is the capital and largest city in Iceland.Its latitude at 64°08' N makes it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói Bay...
.
In the early 1970s, during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Vallance corresponded with government officials in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Red China, trading political badges with Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
leaders. For his efforts, Vallance was investigated by US federal officials and earned a 12-page FBI file.
In 1983, Vallance traveled to Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
in search of the myth of Tiki
Tiki
Tiki refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean. The term is also used in Māori mythology where Tiki is the first man, created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond – she seduced him...
. The resulting artwork, exhibited first in Los Angeles and then internationally, inspired a new genre which came to be known as Tiki Art.
In 1992, while doing volunteer work for the city-council campaign of disgraced former Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
mayor Marion Barry
Marion Barry
Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who is currently serving as a member of the Council of the District of Columbia, representing DC's Ward 8. Barry served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991, and again as the fourth mayor from 1995...
(who had just been released from six months in federal prison for smoking crack
Crack cocaine
Crack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
), Vallance curated “Splashing with Barry (Marion Barry Pool Party),” an art exhibit at Barry’s residence in the Washington View Apartments.
Other projects include creating a Richard Nixon Museum; traveling to the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
, Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
and Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, Italy to study Christian relics; installing an exhibit aboard a tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
in the Västerbotten
Västerbotten
', English exonym: West Bothnia, is a province or landskap in the north of Sweden. It borders Ångermanland, Lapland, Norrbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. It is famous for the cheese with the same name as the province.- Administration :...
Maritime Museum in Umeå
Umeå
- Transport :The road infrastructure in Umeå is well-developed, with two European highways passing through the city. About 4 km from the city centre is the Umeå City Airport...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
; curating shows in the so-called fabulous museums of Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
—the Liberace Museum
Liberace Museum
The Liberace Museum is located in Paradise, Nevada, a census-designated place in Las Vegas Valley. It houses many stage costumes, cars, jewelry, lavishly decorated pianos and numerous citations for philanthropic acts that belonged to the American entertainer and pianist Wladziu Valentino Liberace,...
, Debbie Reynolds' Hollywood Hotel and Casino, Ocean Spray Cranberry World Museum and Ron Lee's World of Clowns Museum; and initiating a campaign called “Preserving America’s Cultural Heritage”—a federal bill that would establish a benefit fund for all living visual artists in the United States. In 2004, Vallance curated the first art-world exhibition of the Painter of Light, entitled “Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade
Thomas Kinkade is an American painter of popular and commercial realistic, bucolic, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via The Thomas Kinkade Company...
: Heaven on Earth,” at CalState Fullerton
California State University, Fullerton
California State University, Fullerton is a public university located in Fullerton, California. It is the largest institution in the CSU System by enrollment, it offers long-distance education and adult-degree programs...
’s Grand Central Art Center
CSUF Grand Central Art Center
California State University, Fullerton Grand Central Art Center is a partnership between the university and the city of Santa Ana. Based in the Downtown National Register District or Artists village it is dedicated to the investigation and promotion of contemporary art and visual culture:...
in Orange County, California
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
.
Vallance’s many forms of work have been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including Dakar, Senegal; Reykjavik, Iceland; Zürich, Switzerland; Milan, Italy; Paris, France; Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
; Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
and Middelburg, Holland
Middelburg (South Holland)
Middelburg is a hamlet in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is located about 2 km west of Waddinxveen, in the former municipality of Reeuwijk....
; Vienna, Austria; Sydney and Tasmania, Australia; Stockholm, Sweden; London, England; and Athens, Greece. He is represented by Bernier/Eliades in Athens, Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris, Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery is an art gallery located in Chelsea in New York City founded by Tanya Bonakdar. Since its inception in 1994, the gallery has maintained a consistent and rigorous program in the exhibition of new work by contemporary artists in all media, including painting, sculpture,...
in New York.
In Popular Culture
In 1983, Vallance was the host of MTVMTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
’s The Cutting Edge
I.R.S. Records Presents The Cutting Edge
I.R.S. Records Presents The Cutting Edge was a music program that aired on MTV from March 1983 to September 1987, on the last Sunday of every month. The first year of the show featured a variety of hosts including Jools Holland, Jeffrey Vallance, and Wazmo Nariz before settling on Peter Zaremba,...
, which premiered experimental music videos from such musicians as R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
, The Bangles
The Bangles
The Bangles are an American all-female band that originated in the early 1980s, scoring several hit singles during the decade.-Formation and early years :...
and The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, and featured Vallance’s artwork. Also in 1983, Vallance appeared on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
’s Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
to discuss what was then his best-known project, Blinky the Friendly Hen, in which he purchased a frozen chicken from a grocery store and buried it at a Los Angeles pet cemetery, and Cultural Ties, a “mail art” project involving the exchange of neckwear
Neckwear
Neckwear refers to various styles of clothing worn around the neck. They are worn for fashion reasons or for protection against weather influences, the latter for comfort of health. Common neckwear today include bow ties, neckties , scarves, feather boas and shawls. Ruffs and bands are historically....
with such international dignitaries as Anwar Sadat
Anwar Sadat
Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981...
, King Hussein of Jordan
Hussein of Jordan
Hussein bin Talal was the third King of Jordan from the abdication of his father, King Talal, in 1952, until his death. Hussein's rule extended through the Cold War and four decades of Arab-Israeli conflict...
, Austrian president Rudolf Kirchschläger
Rudolf Kirchschläger
Rudolf Kirchschläger was an Austrian diplomat, politician, judge and, from 1974 to 1986, the eighth President of Austria.-Education and early life:...
and dozens of others.
In 1984, Vallance appeared on an episode of The Regis Philbin Show
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...
to teach Philbin how to make art. He has also appeared in numerous European and Asian arts and culture documentaries.
Having created album-cover artwork for several early-’80s punk bands including Monitor, Vallance was hired by Grammy-winning art director Kevin Reagan to create art for the cover of singer-songwriter Peter Case
Peter Case
Peter Case is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, who has had a wide-ranging career ranging from new wave music to folk rock to solo acoustic performance.-Early career:...
’s album Six-Pack of Love (Geffen) in 1992.
Vallance also created an onstage backdrop for the band Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts. The band was founded in 1972 as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art group...
which was used on tour and seen on The Joan Rivers Show
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
.
Awards
In 2004, Vallance received the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awardGuggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
for installation art. In 2001, he received a Stiftelsen Framtidens Kultur (Foundation Culture of the Future) grant to curate a performance festival at the Ice Hotel
Ice hotel
An ice hotel is a temporary hotel made up of snow, sculpted blocks of ice, and some steel framing. They are promoted by their sponsors and have special features for travelers who are interested in novelties and unusual environments, and thus are in the class of destination hotels...
in northern Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. In 2000, he was conferred with the royal title of Honorary Noble by the Tongan National Center, Nuku’alofa, Tonga, and also received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college in Los Angeles, California.The school's programs, accredited by WASC and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, include four-year BFA degrees in illustration, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior...
, Los Angeles.
Paranormalcy
Since 2003, when psychic medium Dorothy Maksym identified Vallance as being the earthly spokesperson for the disembodied spirit of former US president Richard M. Nixon (The Haunting of the Presidents, by Joel Martin and William J. Birnes, Signet), Vallance has taken an interest in the paranormalParanormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
, contributing stories to the UK’s Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...
and leading ghost tours of the Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California
Yorba Linda, California
Yorba Linda is a suburban city in northeastern Orange County, California, approximately northeast of Downtown Santa Ana, and southeast of Downtown Los Angeles....
.
Vallance’s interest in the paranormal was piqued by his paternal grandmother, a Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, psychic who once appeared on Art Linkletter's House Party
Art Linkletter's House Party
House Party is an American radio daytime variety/talk show that aired on CBS Radio and on ABC Radio from January 15, 1945 to October 13, 1967...
, and his maternal great-uncle Emil Knudsen
Emil Knudsen
Known as Europe’s most talented mind-reader of the early 20th century, Emil Knudsen was born and raised in Steinkjer, Norway. Psychic premonitions befell Emil Knudsen during his early childhood. In 1877, at the age of five, he foresaw the burning of the nearby town of Levanger...
, a world-renowned Norwegian psychic who was often enlisted by police and private citizens to find missing persons, dead bodies and lost objects throughout the world.
Vallance’s paranormal research projects include Bigfoot
Bigfoot
Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...
, the Shroud of Turin
Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. The image on the shroud is...
, the Holy Lance
Holy Lance
The Holy Lance is the name given to the lance that pierced Jesus' side as he hung on the cross in John's account of the Crucifixion.-Biblical references:The lance is mentioned only in the Gospel of John and not in any of the...
, ghosts of dead US presidents, the Ravens of the Tower of London
Ravens of the Tower of London
The ravens of the Tower of London are a group of captive Common Ravens which live in the Tower of London. The group of ravens at the Tower comprises at least seven individuals...
and the Loch Ness Monster
Loch Ness Monster
The Loch Ness Monster is a cryptid that is reputed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland and elsewhere, though its description varies from one account to the next....
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For a project at the Frieze Art Fair
Frieze Art Fair
Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair that takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. The fair is staged by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the publishers of frieze magazine...
in London, Vallance assembled psychic mediums to channel the spirits of five famous dead artists: Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
, Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
, Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
and Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
. The project took the familiar form of a panel discussion, wherein the artist spirits responded to a series of questions prepared by Vallance. At the end of the program, the spirits responded to questions from the audience as well.
Writings
Vallance has written for such publications and journals as Artforum, Art issues, L.A. Weekly, Juxtapoz, Frieze and Fortean Times, and has published nine books: Blinky the Friendly Hen; The World of Jeffrey Vallance: Collected Writings 1978-1994; Christian Dinosaur; Art on the Rocks; Preserving America’s Cultural Heritage; Thomas Kinkade: Heaven on Earth; My Life with Dick; Relics and Reliquaries; and The Vallance Bible (2011).Academia
Since the mid-1980, Vallance has taught various forms of art at UCLA; Otis/Parsons; the University of Nevada, Las VegasUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas
University of Nevada-Las Vegas is a public, coeducational university located in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada, USA. The campus is located approximately east of the Las Vegas Strip. The institution includes a Shadow Lane Campus, located just east of the University Medical Center of...
; Umeå University
Umeå University
Umeå University is a university in Umeå in the mid-northern region of Sweden. The university was founded in 1965 and is the fifth oldest within Sweden's present borders....
(Sweden); the University of Texas at San Antonio
University of Texas at San Antonio
The University of Texas at San Antonio, commonly referred to as UTSA, is a state university in San Antonio, Texas. With an enrollment of more than 30,000 students, it is the third-largest of nine universities and six health institutions in the University of Texas System and the eighth-largest in...
; the University of Tasmania
University of Tasmania
The University of Tasmania is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia...
(Australia), California State University Channel Islands; and the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
.
He currently teaches a course called “The Art of Infiltration” at California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
(CalArts), in Valencia, California
Valencia, California
Valencia is an affluent planned community located in the City of Santa Clarita, California and Los Angeles County, California, U.S. in the northwestern corner of the Santa Clarita Valley, adjacent to Interstate 5. In 1987, it was one of the four unincorporated communities that merged to create the...
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External links
- Myths of the Raven: The myths and meanings of the Tower of London ravens, Fortean Times, November 2007.
- Artist Talk: a lecture at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA. Video/Slide show. The artist gives an hourlong discussion of his career, Spring 2009.
- Distinguished Alumni Page at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Lapp of the Gods, by Jeffrey Vallance, Fortean Times, January 2005.
- Page at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York, New York, USA
- Description of some of Vallance's works