Valerie Swanson is an American artist from the Midwest who uses mannequins as vessels for storytelling.  These static representations of the body are transformed through the purposeful layering of symbolic “skin”- a collage of found and familiar materials. 

Children’s drawings evoke the formation and evolution of identity, capturing the uninhibited  creativity and vulnerability of early life.  Tea bags, stained and delicate, suggest domestic ritual, comfort and the quiet passage of time.  Antique encyclopedia pages raise questions  about how knowledge is shaped, preserved, and lost- how truths evolve as we age and reframe our understanding of the world. 

By fusing these elements onto lifeless forms, each mannequin becomes a sculptural archive- an embodiment of both personal and collective memory.  Valerie’s work invites reflection on the stories we carry, the rituals we repeat, and the fragments of experience that define us.