Andrea Valentini
RISD '95 [Interior Architecture]
Andrea
Valentini’s has an emerging signature style making sculptural textiles
into functional objects. From bags to place mats she is gaining status
in both worlds of interior design and fashion. “A graduate of RISD from
Interior Architecture, her debut was at the ICFF in New York with
polyurethane furniture in 2001 when her award winning Coosh Egg Chair
was chosen by Interior Design Magazine’s Future Furniture Competition.
Ever since, she has been recognized worldwide in galleries and museums
in the US, Europe and Far East exhibiting with Yoriko Ebihara in Gifu,
Japan and Ellen Lupton with Vitra for Second Skin in Essen Germany. In
2003 her talent was recognized when she was one of only 80 American
Designers chosen by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design
Triennial, “Inside Design Now” representing the quality, range and
vitality of current U.S design practice today and she received a
nomination for best product design.
She
has been featured in the New York Times and several design publications
worldwide and her materials are displayed in material libraries abroad.
Her textiles have been sited in the book Transmaterial 2 edited by
Blaine Brownell in 2008.
She
currently designs and shows from her gallery in Providence Rhode Island
at Conley’s Wharf and art directs the Gail Cahalan Gallery “Launch”. A
gallery devoted to the work of RISD undergrads and graduate students
intended to lift them off campus to show in a public venue.
A
portion of proceeds will be forwarded toward a seed scholarship fund
called “RISH” Come True, for high school students in Rhode Island
accepted into RISD.
Andrea Valentini is a State appointed official serving on the board of the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, RISCA.