Val Britton was born in New Jersey and lives in Portland, Oregon. She received her B.F.A. from Rhode Island School of Design and her M.F.A. from California College of the Arts. Britton creates immersive, collaged works on paper, site-specific installations, and public art that explores physical and psychological spaces. Using maps as metaphors, her fragmented, exploded landscapes investigate memory, history, and the possibilities of abstraction. Much of her work was initially influenced by her father, a cross country truck driver and mechanic, and his loss when she was young.
A recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship, she has participated in over a dozen residencies and fellowships including Headlands Center for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Recology AIR Program, GLEAN Portland, Millay Colony for the Arts, Kala Art Institute, and the Golden Foundation. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in museums, galleries, art fairs, alternative spaces, and non-profit institutions nationally and internationally.
Britton has created award-winning public art for San Francisco International Airport and NYC Percent for Art Public Art for Public Schools among others. Her work is part of numerous collections including the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the Cleveland Clinic, de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, Facebook Headquarters, the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Print Collection of the Library of Congress, National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New-York Historical Society, New York Public Library, the San José Museum of Art, and the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies Program in Brussels, Belgium. Her latest permanent public art commission Where Earth Meets Sky at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina will open to the public in September 2024.
