Valérie Belin uses photography to explore the human body as a powerful vessel for abstraction and projected meaning. She has photographed live models and mannequins, masks and cardsharks, dancers and bodybuilders all while referring to the central theme of reality vs. artificiality. Belin questions the construction and fetishization of mainstream beauty ideals and enduring gender constructs.
Valérie Belin graduated from the École Nationale des Beaux-arts in 1988, where she focused on American art of the ‘60s and ‘70s. She went on to study philosophy of art at the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris. Her work has been exhibited extensively domestically and abroad, including in solo exhibitions at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA; Huis Marseilles, Amsterdam; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris and the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne. Her work is included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’art Moderne de la ville de Paris; Kunsthaus Zürich; Los Angeles County Museum; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Belin was awarded the Paris Photo prize in 1997, the CCF (HSBC) Foundation for Photography Prize in 2000, and the Prix Pictet in 2015. She is an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in France, and her work was the subject of a major retrospective Les images intranquilles at the Centre Pompidou in 2015.