Valerie Auersperg | Art Queens Society

Valerie Auersperg is an Austrian artist living in New Zealand who creates acrylic paintings as well as digital drawings depicting pop-surreal scenes in a colourful, dream-like manner.

Auersperg explores the world inside and around herself, pairing the expected with the unusual. She focuses on themes such as memory (real and perceived), pop culture and mental health. Her work is a whimsical commentary on how our inner journeys, moods and situations are something that connects us.

Auersperg’s paintings always start with a memory, a mood or just a nostalgic feeling. Living far away from where she grew up informs these recollections of home and comfort. She then weaves these into scenes of optimism and escapism adding little delightful details such as smiley faces, flamingos, balloons, 90s memorabilia, etc to her paintings, aiming to evoke a feeling of joy and wonder and put a smile on the observer’s face.

She starts sketching her ideas digitally, creating the composition on an iPad before transferring the work to a canvas. This allows her to play around with colours and placements before painting the final piece. In addition to painting on canvas, she has also completed a number of murals in private residences, offices and public spaces as well as created sculptures for display in Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.

Auersperg is a self-taught artist, having worked in fashion and animation, as well as advertising previously. Yet art was always her passion and side hustle. Then, finally, in 2020, she finally took the leap to become a full-time artist. She has had exhibitions in San Francisco, CA and Auckland, NZ as well as been featured in various global virtual exhibitions such as PxP Contemporary’s ‘WILD’ (curated by Alicia Puig), Sergio Gomez’ ‘Isolation Chronicles’, Create Magazine’s ‘Healing from Within’ (curated by Tam Gryn), and Beautiful Things NZ’ ‘The People We See’. She has also been featured in PIKCHUR Magazine, Envison Arts magazine, Fennec Home Magazine and New Visionary Magazine, has been profiled on Create! Magazine’s online blog as well as The Big Idea NZ website, and has been part of the WWF Whale Tail trail in Auckland in 2022.

Valerie Auersperg's work aims to bring a smile and a sense of joy and wonder to the observer.

Auersperg creates pop-surrealist illustrations reflecting the world around and inside of us, pairing the expected with the unusual. Visualizing her anxieties and joys in surreal scenes of optimism and escapism, Auersperg always adds humorous elements to remind herself and the observer to not take all the little things so to heart. Her work is a whimsical commentary on how our inner journeys and although her work always depicts a version of her inner self, the moods, situations, and stories are those that many can connect with.

Auersperg is half Austrian, half Italian, and grew up in the beautiful countryside of Austria. She has lived and worked in Vienna, Milan, London, Melbourne, and Sydney before arriving in Auckland. With all that travel, Auersperg chose to work on iPads rather than paper because it allowed her to bring her art supplies and artworks along with ease.

Auersperg is a self-taught artist. She lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand. Having worked in fashion, animation, as well as advertising previously, art was always her passion and side hustle. Then, finally, in 2020, she took the leap to become a full-time artist. She has had exhibitions in San Francisco, CA, and Auckland, NZ.

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