Winnipeg, Canada

Andrew Valko has made himself the laureate of disconnected encounter: the master of incomplete ceremony. Almost without exception, his paintings and drawings are episodes in an ongoing fragmentary narrative in which we are obliged, as viewers, to fill in the details of a story that he only hints at. Valko knows that viewer and voyeur are close in meaning. These radiant paintings glow with a sense of golden unhappiness. On the basis of this new work, Andrew Valko legitimately anoints himself the master of the ambiguous gaze. —Robert Enright

I met Andrew when he graduated from a two-year program in graphic design in the late 1970s… his illustration skills were exceptional. I offered him his first job (actually, he was our first official “employee” at CIRCLE) which lasted all of six months. He was clearly cut out for a career in capital “A” Art, and I wished him nothing but the best. We’ve stayed friends over the ensuing decades, and I’ve had the privilege of commissioning his painterly talents for a number of different stamp designs we’ve created for Canada Post. Andrew is one of the most focused and consistently hard-working painters I have ever encountered; combined with his exceptional talents there was never any doubt that he would achieve great success!

All paintings shown above are ©Andrew Valko.

See titles of works (and many, many more) here.