Andrew Vallee

American sculptor, Andrew Vallee, creates remarkable works carved, cast or assembled from found natural materials.

Vallee grew up in New Hope, Pennsylvania, near the studio of the pioneering artist-woodworker George Nakashima (1905-1990). And from a young age he was greatly influenced by the purity and integrity of Nakashima’s aesthetic.

'The woodworker has a special intensity, a striving for perfection, a conviction that any task must be executed with all his skill…to create the best object he is capable of creating.'  George Nakashima

Graduating from Western Washington University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art, Vallee continued his education as an apprentice of the noted master furniture-maker Alan Rosen of Lummi Island, WA. In 1997, he went into business with Wesley Smith, to create Smith & Vallee Cabinet Makers, and has been building furniture and cabinetry ever since.

In parallel with this ongoing venture, Vallee has also established his fine art sculptural practice, creating work that interrogates our relationship with the natural world. Deploying found objects – including naturally-fallen trees, shells, animal bones, feathers, stones, fossils, plants – he fashions sculptural pieces that resonate with an almost talismanic power.

Vallee’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the Pacific Northwest, including the Whatcom Museum of History and Art and Bainbridge Island Museum of Art and Museum of Northwest Art, in Washington state.