Artist Opening Reception - Nancy X. Valentine: Legacy Amendment

Please join Kaddatz Galleries on Thursday, May 11, 2023 from 5PM - 7PM for the opening reception of Nancy X. Valentine: Legacy Amendment! Artist talk at 6PM; This event is free to attend and open to the public. About the Exhibition: ‘Legacy Amendment’ is the tethering point of two bodies of work. The series that came first was created in the spring of 2021 as a part of Springboard for the Arts’ Artists Respond: Equitable Rural Futures. Valentine titled it ‘The Audacity to be Asian in Rural America: we owe you no apologies” with focus on her family of origin - the Chinese side. Featuring the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac, she created contemporary Chinese paintings dry mounted to silk brocade hanging scrolls that told stories of her family’s immigration from Lanzhou, Gansu, China to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, USA. That series is her interpretation of the Legacy of the ancestry she inherited. The series that completes this show is Valentine's Amendment, the place she stand currently representing the mark, uniquely her own, that she will make in contribution to the ancestral continuum of her maternal lineage. The title of this show is an ode to the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution more widely known as just the Legacy Amendment. A legislative appropriation that would later lead to the genesis of Valentine's career as an Artist. About the Artist: Nancy XiáoRong Valentine is a Chinese American artist living and making a life in rural Otter Tail County, Minnesota. Conceived as the second child of a family residing in Lanzhou, Gansu during the era of China’s ‘One Child Policy,’ Valentine views her artistry as a channel to deepen her cultural connections to and between her Chinese heritage and Midwestern roots. Valentine’s artwork is woven with nuance and symbolism resulting in conceptually complex visual stories meant to evoke empathy.