Born in 1988 in Turin, Italy, Valeria Vaccaro went to the Fine Arts High School in her hometown, which she concluded in 2007 with a diploma. Then, she studied sculpture at the Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, also in Turin. During this education, she was granted two additional trainings: “La sQuola” in Biella in 2010 and a Master Class in visual arts and design by La Biennale di Venezia in 2012. After her diploma at the Accademia in 2013, she worked for one year in the artist studio of Fabio Viale.
Early, in 2005 she presented her works to the public. Since this time, she participated in many group shows and art fairs, first primarily in Italy. With the itinerant Biennale Jeune Création Européenne (JCE) from 2013 to 2015, her creations travelled throughout Europe, with shows in France, the Netherlands, Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Spain and Portugal. She won a special mention from the city of Turin for the occasion of the 2017 Art Prize CBM. In 2022, she was granted with the second place of the VAF Foundation Award in Kiel, Germany, followed by participations in Switzerland, Norway, Slovenia, Grece and the United States and several solo shows in Italy. Until now, her last personal exhibition in 2025 was “It’s Break Time”, at the beach resort “Alpemare”, owned by the family Bocelli in Forte dei Marmi in cooperation with the gallery Daniele Comelli, Genova. Here she presented “Supermina”, a sculpture group of oversized coloured pencils, which is our Artwork of the Month / October 2025.
Valeria explores in her hyper-realistic oeuvre mainly fire and combustion, even though she only depicts the impact and does not work directly with the often destructive element. For her, fire is rather a purifying matter of inspiration, which transforms material. Interesting from this point of view is that her feedstock is a relatively fire resistant one: Carrara marble.
The artist transforms the white stone into seemingly other materials. Often, she features items of everyday use, such as candles (our Artwork of the Month / December 2022), matches, transport boxes, furniture or as in our Artwork of the Month / November 2019 EUR-pallets. By processing the marble and painting it afterwards, emerge objects that portray the models perfectly. Common to most of these natural reproductions is that they carry traces of combustion, but the flame remains invisible. Herewith, she freezes a single instant between ideal condition and disintegration, to deliver it to eternity. A special appeal in these sculptures lies in the contrast between the simulated materiality and the real one.
Valeria lives and works in Turin.