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New York dealer Valerie Goodman speaks with Art Review City about her new gallery, and forging her path to freedom.

Goodman opened her eponymous gallery after a long and prosperous career in the music business. She began on this new path to the art world selling French decorative art mostly from the 1930s and 40s. Today, she works closely with a high-profile roster of artists who have been featured in publications from World of Interiors to Architectural Digest, and in shows from New York to Taiwan including at the Queens Museum and the Aqua Miami fair.

“Art is the way to freedom,” declares Valerie Goodman, a veteran dealer with over a decade of experience selling art and design in the Upper East Side of New York.

Valerie Goodman, photo by Karen Kolberg.

While studying for a master’s degree in literature at The Sorbonne in Paris, she became interested in the music world and quickly became engrained in that community. It was then that she first found her passion for interacting with creators and started to work with them to bring to life their ideas and goals. Scouting talent in her city of Paris, Goodman helped young artists get record deals. She was managing a group of artists, promoting shows, and this new career would bring her to the United States. Seeking to expand her reach in the world of art, Goodman sought out opportunities that were of interest: from bringing talent to the New York trendy music convention, the New Music Seminar to managing musicians, to distributing a French film by Claire Denis, and to developing opportunities for the Sam and Larry Shaw photographic collection.

In 2003, Goodman met a gallerist who specialized in French decorative art. She started working with him and discovered the treasures of 20^th century decorative art. For … Click here to read more

Artist Q&A with Jacques Jarrige

Jacques Jarrige is a Paris-based artist working in the confluence of fine art and decorative art with sculptural and functional objects in relation to the body and human scaled spaces. He is represented by Valerie Goodman Gallery in New York.

“Double Dining Table”, beech wood, 42 x 30 x 120 in | 107 x 76 x 305 cm, 2020

Who is your favorite artist of all time?

I love the work of Henry Moore. I first saw his work at the Château de Bagatelle in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which is famous for its rose garden. In this naturalistic English landscape style park setting, Moore’s work gave me the feeling that I was meant to be a sculptor. It was his work that made me believe I was meant to do it.

How did you become a professional artist?

I have always felt strongly connected to art. My father was an avid art collector, so there were a lot of paintings in my home as a child. There were also two small, distinctive Rodin sculptures that were always in the house, and now, in the back of my mind.

Through studying architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts and decorative art at Ecole Supérieure d’Art Moderne, I became drawn to creating more sculptural works. The first object I created was a chair made of rebar I had envisioned in my mind. I bought a welding gun and created the piece in my kitchen. By physically creating a work of art in this manner, I understood it more and became less reliant on drawing in my practice. I was inspired that I could directly create what I had envisioned.

In school I was not interested in pursuing anything other than drawing. Not music, math or any other field, and later architecture wasn’t really satisfying. … Click here to read more