Valerie Snobeck

Valerie Snobeck was born in Wadena, Minnesota, in 1980 and lives and works in New York.  

Valerie Snobeck transforms materials through a process of erosion. Working with mirrors, she uses acid, scraping, cutting, and rubbing to remove the metal backing from the glass, leaving only subtle traces of its previous state. The resulting surfaces become graphic compositions of shadows and metallic tones, shifting between opacity, translucency, and reflection. Snobeck’s work brings together the worlds of alchemy and machinery. By allowing materials to deteriorate and change, she disrupts established structures and draws attention to the physical processes behind what we build and create. For Snobeck, these opposing forces can generate movement and change rather than simply being accepted as inevitable.  

Before her residency at Atelier Calder, Snobeck conducted research with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, DC, continuing her investigation into US environmental policy. She focused on the EPA headquarters, developing a process of reinterpreting the architectural elements of its Neoclassical façade—windows, doors, stone niches, arches, corbels, and other details. The elements remained recognizable, but Snobeck altered and reconfigured them, placing them within complex structures that challenged how we understand and value the things around us.