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ContactUtrecht based, Netherlands

lentzevalerie@gmail.com
@vmlentze

- Marjolein Sponsolee
Valérie Lentze is fascinated by things that attract and repel, positive and negative,
preferably at the same time. This can be found in the look in someone’s eyes, or in
something you don’t really want to see, but from which you cannot look away. That sense
of unease is precisely what she seeks to capture in her paintings.
She works with images of the human body that arise from a sketch, photograph or
memory. For her, painting is a way of responding to the tension of the original image or
moment. Not by simply reproducing the image, but by breaking it down and allowing it to
unfold layer by layer. She explores what happens when desire, vulnerability, control and
discomfort converge in a single image.
In her recent work, she explores how a figure can appear present, vulnerable or intimate,
whilst simultaneously being shaped by posture, framing, performance and control.
Portraiture and pornographic imagery rub shoulders in her work. In both cases, the figures
confront the viewer with a defiant gaze or posture. The angular forms contribute to the
sense of unease, as do the unnatural colours. The work is intimate and yet distant at the
same time. By switching between portraits and pornographic fragments, Lentze explores
the boundary between looking with intimacy, desire and control.

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts
HKU Hogeschool der Kunsten Utrecht

Bachelor or Art History
Years Attended
Universiteit Leiden

Experience

Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten
Artist Assistance of Ying Zhou

W139
Volunteer

2026

2020 - 2022

2025

2025

Exhibitions

Fotodok
What grows in soft Conditions
Utrecht

Academiegalerie (AG)
Fired Up
Utrecht

De Nieuwe Vernissage
Amsterdam

Studio Ding Dong
Amsterdam

Project Space Lokaal
Group Therapy
Utrecht

Cafca
Dualities
Utrecht

2025

2025

2025

2025

2024

2024