De Wain Valentine

(American, 1936–2022) De Wain Valentine is an American artist known for his translucent resin and glass sculptures. Associated with the Light and Space movement of the 1960s, Valentine’s works employ industrial techniques for artistic ends. Born in 1936 in Fort Collins, CO, he attended the University of Colorado for his BFA and received his MFA from the Yale School of Art. After briefly living in New York, Valentine relocated to Los Angeles in 1965, where he entered a milieu of artists that included Larry Bell and Ken Price. Working as a surfboard maker, Valentine’s sculptures were influenced by the landscape, surfing culture, and the hot rods of Southern California. While teaching a plastics technology course at UCLA, he began using commercial-sized quantities of polyester resin. Valentine’s experimentation in the medium eventually led him to develop a product called Valentine MasKast Resin with Hastings Plastics company. The artist currently lives and works in Gardena, CA. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, among others.