Andrea Valentini

artist/industrial designerAndrea Valentini born and raised in Rhode Island, USA received both Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Interior Architecture degrees from (RISD). With more than 14 years of professional experience as a commercial and residential Interior Architect, receiving several awards for her interiors, she began to set her focus and explorations on "the object in space."Intending to combine and expand her knowledge and experience as an artist/ designer, she has developed a body of work that is now a portfolio of product design being noticed both nationally and internationally. She is among a very select group of designers' chosen by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum 2003 Triennial, "Inside Design Now" which represents the quality, range and vitality of current U.S. design practice today. She has also been nominated for a National Design Award in Product Design, 2003"to see again…is to forget…what you already know…"A quote which inspires Andrea's work and daily challenges in search of material exploration and discovery. She processes her investigations, through potential materials of modern technology, by uncovering the hidden characteristics that lay within.Materials otherwise known as utilitarian and industrial, that seem inhibited by their conventions and limited to their uses, challenge her, to seek insightful opportunities through diversity in function, resurgence in form and understanding of environmental awareness.While allowing the eye to feel and the hand to touch, she arrives at witty, sculptural objects that function not only to utility but to the senses.Her work has been featured in: The New York Times, I.D magazine, Dwell, Parenting, Surface Magazine, Interior Design Magazine, The Washington Post, Financial Times (London) & Metropolis. She is also a member of the IDNF-"International Design Network Foundation" and has recently been selected to the board of the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts