Transcript for Episode 163 – Textile + Multi Media Artist, Petra Gupta Valentová (Czech Republic, India + USA)

Recorded March 19, 2021
Published April 13, 2021

Full recording here: https://wisefoolpod.com/textile-multi-media-artist-petra-gupta-valentova-czech-republic-india-usa/

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Matthew Dols 0:12
Could you please pronounce your name correctly for me?

Petra Gupta Valentová 0:15
the appellant Allah, so very chick pronounciation that trap that robbery, you need to put it at strong R and volunteer with accent to on a bar. Right. So

Matthew Dols 0:28
but I’ve also seen Gupta.

Petra Gupta Valentová 0:30
Yes, the My husband is from Rajasthan, India. And I mean there are reasons why I didn’t take Gupta as a legal name mainly because we are both immigrants in the US. And when we got married, we were on different reasons, different passports. And we also had a perspective of long process of applying for a green card and eventually citizenship, there will be so many forms that I would have to change and make life easier. I never took his last name, I stay with Petra Valenzuela. But I am using Gupta as my artistic name often because a lot of my work, I would say majority of my work in practice lately has been influenced by the culture, by Indian culture and by by living in a multicultural environment. That’s why Gupta as a name is very important to me. So yes, you can find me and a group as well,

Matthew Dols 1:29
because you have a very interesting mix of cultures in your life. Because you you are from the Czech Republic, your husband is from India, but you will live in the United States. So like, how did that all happen?

Petra Gupta Valentová 1:43
Oh, my gosh, such a long, long story. I got it when I was 11. I was an I will start with a middle childhood and a children’s dream. When I was 11. I think approximately middle steel, deep communism, let’s think about it. My uncle in Parker mitzvah, which is an Eastern Czech Republic, about 100 kilometers east of Prague. My uncle had a map of New York above his sofa. And I stood there and look at it. And I was thinking, oh my god, this is the place I want to live at. And I didn’t know how this came, I always had a dream of being somewhere else. I think as a two year old, I was dreaming about Australia. And somehow I ended up in New York, but it’s somehow the place captured me. I didn’t know anything about New York and about us. But New York depicted through the pop culture and through what information I got, somehow, really, really intrigued me. So when I was studying at Academy of Fine Arts, I got an opportunity to be one of the first students at a corporation, and B and frank discussion, Chico, were first exchange students for semester medical brainian. And that’s how I started. Well actually, it’s not necessarily true because I started in I came for first time to New York in 1997. When I was working for Czech, born American artists have a look at ours. And he had few exhibitions in Prague at that time, he was looking for a system, I started helping him and then I started helping him exhibitions in New York. But my real real entrance to the world a New York was through the exchange program at Gabriella in 1999 2000. So that’s how I ended up there. And then from that, it went to my studies through Academy of Fine Arts, which I finished and then knowing New York, I applied for a Fulbright scholarship at a Fulbright did my second MFA at Hunter College your name and in our last semester, I met my husband who also came to do his master’s program in Chicago. And somehow we’ve met and somehow we both ended up here living this very multi culture multinational life.

Matthew Dols 4:19
Yeah, very much so. I thought I was very x Patti by being an American in Europe, but you’re truly sort of trans continental in your sort of relationships. So now the the influence of the Czech Republic in India is very strong in your artwork like I looked through and it was looking through the your blue textiles works and the relationships between India and Czech Republic, but you still live in America while you’re doing this work. So like, how did that all work? Because do you spend time in India like live there for like six months a year kind of thing? How do you How are you how I’m like all that

Petra Gupta Valentová 5:01
I was traveling heavily before strange events of last year and lock downs. And yes, so my work is heavily dependent on personal relationships in the Czech Republic and India, it also works well with my family, I have two kids, ages nine and 11. And I wanted them to be very much connected to both cultures equally. And, I mean, going to Czech Republic was easy, but going to India, with very strong family relationships and hierarchy was kind of not difficult, but it had its issues. And therefore, I was looking for a way to be an active participant in a culture and matches. daughter and sister in law that sort of had to comply with certain culture customs. So I was looking for something to do and being creative person, I was looking for expanding my tools and my practice, and the way how to actively participate. So I started looking and I discovered block printing, to answer your question is, yes, I was traveling heavily to show my children the culture, therefore, the trips are sort of, they’re already set up. Like I knew that every year I go at least once a once a year to Czech Republic, and once a year to India, for my children to show them the cultures and be in touch with the family. And as a side, part of that became my work, I became more involved with people on both sides, because I really wanted to do something while I am in both countries. Does it answer your question?

Matthew Dols 6:57
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, what the and then you get involved with it, as you mentioned, with block printing, I mean, block printing is, you know, has a long tradition in both Europe and Asia. India is referred to as Asia. Am I getting that? Right? I always get scared. Okay, good.

Petra Gupta Valentová 7:15
Well, it’s a subcontinent, right? India is a it’s a, it’s a world on its own and it has its own timezone, which is really interesting. So this point there, it has that half an hour timezone.

Matthew Dols 7:27
course it does. That but you mentioned your your husband’s family or do they have a particular religion that they practice,

Petra Gupta Valentová 7:36
they’re Hindus, but they are more I would say that they are very open minded, and I think that allowed me to become a part of the family and have nothing and respect for my mother in law and for my family and their activism and their involvement in communities life. So, in a way, it seems that me and my husband have nothing in common, but when you go really deeper, I think we have a lot in common that we share similar beliefs, similar ethical practices,

Matthew Dols 8:15
alright, and this concern about ethical practices is involved in your work itself also with your work in India and all this. So, please, you know, give me a little primer on sort of like what your concepts behind your work, yes.

Petra Gupta Valentová 8:30
So, I started as a sculptor, actually, I started in restoration of sculptures initially, then I started figurative sculpture and I ended up in multimedia and more conceptual work, what is behind my work is usually an idea or concept that I very strongly believe in. So, when I started working with block printers, I saw sort of became very involved with indigenous printing communities who belong to one of the poor societies or poor people in within the Indian society. And I felt that we are taking that we are applying a lot of power position when working with them, and we are sort of continuing our colonial or postcode in within a colonial practices of you know, coming to India out to a printing community and saying, I know what people like and I know what the design is, and I know what I but you should do and and you should do this and this and this, because this is the aesthetics That is right. And your aesthetics is not its traditional, but my aesthetics is that it’s sophisticated and the right one and I think that was really, really bothering me. So I started looking for into how to involve people and how to really work with them particularly but also very Politically, I think empathy is the word that I would use as a centerpiece of my, of my practice. So I started building how my work around collaborative design about collaboration, I’d say I would emphasize the words collaboration, and empathy as the centerpieces of my work. Therefore, I started getting to know the community better, getting to know them on personal level, listening to them questioning what are their dreams, what are their practices, how is their day, how is how is the whole life within the community, that and village and I came up with, I mean, it’s nothing new. But I came up with the width approach that included collaboration. So I started working with a set of workshops, when I was more like a medium, a creator of the creative processes. And me and a 10 or 11 women from the printing community in bagru, which is in Rochester, not very far away from Jaipur, to the series of workshops, put together designs that represented them that were based on their work on their creative thinking. And this is basically at the center of my breaks, I don’t want to come up with my own designs, I want to be a medium or greater for a Dubois for the for the women craftsmen and artisans. And, and help them and allow them to create their own work in their designs. That brings creativity back to the to the process to their work. Yes, so my work is about collaborate, teaming with people and giving them voice. And rather than putting my ego upfront, really being more a medium,

Matthew Dols 11:58
but the art world is all about our egos.

Petra Gupta Valentová 12:01
Yes, it is. And that’s why I am sort of on the side, and I’m not in a mainstream and I am keeping my invisibility. Because I learned through many painful experiences that I don’t want to put my ego there and I disagree with ego based process just for me, like for me, it just makes me happier.

Matthew Dols 12:23
It would probably make all of us happier if we could somehow get ego out of the involvement. But what I mean, what kind of experiences are you talking about? This sort of turned you away from the arts world.

Petra Gupta Valentová 12:34
I mean, there’s so many things like, over creation, like we just create so much of stuff. And we’re all that stuff goes and what’s going to happen with it. I think that’s that’s that’s one of the thing, like of humanity. And that’s another thing, it’s just to me, art is about a personal growth. It’s something that I sign up for. That’s something that is important to me to grow as an artist to learn to develop. I think that’s the centerpiece of me, and my art career. Now. How many people see it? How much does it get outside, of course, it’s nice to get a feedback, but it’s not necessary. It’s really way at the end of the line of what’s important and why it’s important to me. It’s really about the development, self development, self growth learning curve.

Matthew Dols 13:36
I’m all about all of the things you just said. However, the one side of that that fascinates me the most is how do you make a living doing that.

Petra Gupta Valentová 13:47
So that, of course gets complicated to read a family structure. So when I was a student, I always or even after school, I always supported myself. I worked, you know, restoration, or I worked for many years, the small New York gallery on herbicide where I’m actually working again. Now, when I was a student at Hunter College, I had like five jobs. I worked in a bar illegally, of course, under the table like everybody else, and a well known famous Ludlow street when Laurie Seidel still recite, and it was cool. And it was just the beginning of gentrification. I worked at a sculpture studio, I worked a gallery as cleaning apartments and I did something else. I don’t even know what but I was able to pay my school I was able to pay my studio and I was able to pay even going to Czech Republic once a year or twice a year. So of course when I was responsible for myself, it was much easier. Now, life got a little bit more complicated because it’s a family structure. And I married her husband who was job kept more and more demanding and complicated. And

Matthew Dols 15:09
what industry? Does he work in?

Petra Gupta Valentová 15:11
His investment banker? Oh, yeah, yes. Yeah, the Wall Street guy,

Matthew Dols 15:17
probably some lovely suits, right, nice ties

Petra Gupta Valentová 15:20
that he works with at the chama these days.

Matthew Dols 15:23
As we all do,

Petra Gupta Valentová 15:24
yes, we all do. Yes, of course. But I mean, there are a lot of medical misconceptions about this kind of work. He’s not the shiny type that you can see in TVs, or whatever he is really very professional, very involved in his industry, I have nothing, then respect for the way how he works with his clients and how he’s devoted to his career. So it’s, it’s really demanding and heartbreaking job. And it’s not all flashy, with Jamie, as we can see. But of course, it gives the stability to us. And it’s a certain social contract that I entered through the years. So I do not have to support myself. But I to everything else, like he is doing to where I can I do everything else and raise the kids and make sure that they survive this under make and everything else. Oh, yes, it is slow bit cliche, I would say. But it’s also a reality. That’s just what it is. But I am back at a gallery. I do have small income through my fabrics through selling my work occasionally. But no, I can’t like last a few months, I cannot do that full time somebody else needed me and I stepped in. And that’s basically what happened.

Matthew Dols 16:48
Okay, but I have a question specifically. Okay, if so, let’s say a on the fabric stuff. So you design these fabrics, you work as a co designer with these indigenous people in their communities, whether it’s in Czech Republic or in India, in creating these designs. But then do you do you actually, like create something with the fabric? Or do you just like, sell the fabrics,

Petra Gupta Valentová 17:10
both there’s line of things that we’ve been doing bags, I also collaborate with nother visual artists in Czech Republic. And here in the US, and in India, we did a series of dresses for time, Cowboys, levar. I mean, I just applied fabrics, and she did dresses, and we did performances with other visual artists, and theatre and performance artists, to show that the fabrics can be used in a variety of clothing, but we also did bags, I use the fabrics and the furniture. So there’s really a bright variety where the fabrics can be used. And I think that’s my goal for future to really show that these fabrics that are sourced, in my opinion, more articulate, because they bring two communities together, or two individualities not emergencies, but really communities together the community of black printers with older culture and intellectual knowledge and ownership of the craft, and me as somebody who brings them together with or bridges to Worlds. So I wanted to show that these fabrics can be or fabrics can be done in this way with the respect of the community that actually owns the craft, intellectually. And culturally.

Matthew Dols 18:42
It’s a UNESCO World Heritage sort of thing. Right? Well,

Petra Gupta Valentová 18:46
that’s for the blueprint. Yes, the blueprint, as a technique was recognized and fewer and workshops in Central Europe or Eastern Europe, they were recognized as folders are carriers of this craft. Yes, block printing is a whole world. There are so many techniques and so many specific places where it’s being done. And while there are some similarities, there are also big differences. So let’s say Czech Republic, and Moravia has two workshops that are working with specifically blueprint renascent unless you turn that one is in strategy to

Matthew Dols 19:27
what are the names of these places do you know

Petra Gupta Valentová 19:30
so one is danciger and other sheets, and then strategy table note them as a strategy to chemotherapy risk.

Matthew Dols 19:36
I do not personally know them, but I will look them up afterwards

Petra Gupta Valentová 19:39
and I can also send you a few links. And then in India block printing is typical for in many areas, but I’m specifically working with workshops in bagru, which is community or village not far away from China or capital of Rochester. And it’s well known for use of natural dyes. So while blueprint in Czech Republic and alessian, sir, are resist print in bags at all, we are working not only with resist, but with also direct printing, natural dyes and other techniques. So it’s a it’s a whole worlds that you can, you know, get into once and never leave

Matthew Dols 20:24
Oh, as any specialization, you know, there’s an entire industry in that by itself. But you brought up the terms, ethical, ethically, things like this. And this seems to be something very important to you. But could you define that sort of thing? That’s a bit to me, that’s a very broad thing, because like I jokingly said on another podcast, like a, you know, a collector, being ethical is a collector that would not fly in their private jet. But instead, you know, fly commercial, like that’s ethically going to an art fair. So I think yours is a little different than that. Give us a little context for that,

Petra Gupta Valentová 20:59
I would say, respecting all the stakeholders, and everybody involved, but everybody means also the environment. It’s not only individuals, it’s also an intangible things like environment, culture, history, intellectual property. So I would say ethical to me, means with respect of all these state stakeholders, tangible and intangible,

Matthew Dols 21:28
and how do you not maintained, but how do you practice that in your own creative practice?

Petra Gupta Valentová 21:36
It’s learning it’s never ending learning process, and it’s questioning your own practice all the time.

Matthew Dols 21:43
Okay. Well, I’ll question your approach that, how about this? So I did try to do some research on you before we got on. And I found that you’ve done sculpture, painting, fabric work, producing things with fabric, and a cookbook?

Petra Gupta Valentová 22:03
Yes. And I also don’t photo sound video installations, all these things? Yes.

Matthew Dols 22:10
Okay. But the question I have about that, though, is because like, okay, I come from a very particular time period, and very particular educational structure America in the 90s and early aughts. And they were always saying, like, find a medium, find a thing, find a style, a signature look, or whatever, and they have that be your thing. And you seem to have run the opposite direction from that.

Petra Gupta Valentová 22:36
Yes, that’s true. Because to me, as I said, before, the art is about exploring and growth, and doesn’t matter what media it is, it’s really more about the idea behind and sometimes the media that music is not a right for, or that I’m that I would use before, it’s not a right one to express what I’m really thinking or what I am exploring, or what I wanted to say. So I really guess, in this sense, a multi media artist or I can I see, I always write in my resume as a multimedia artists, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, whatever it means, but it’s truly something that represents me, because there’s not a single media that I stuck to. And I worked with, well, but then the lead the then question of that lens into is like, has that been beneficial or detrimental to

Matthew Dols 23:35
your career?

Petra Gupta Valentová 23:37
I don’t know. I think I think let’s ask him again in 40 years.

Matthew Dols 23:42
Okay. We’ll mark the date.

Petra Gupta Valentová 23:44
No problem. Because I think it’s a lot about I mean, there are women, there are artists who were, who were coming to the recognition at the end of their life, I think it’s not even about that. It’s more about continue working. I mean, there are people who worked women who worked in invisible, they were recognized, like livan Tico. She was recognized, and then she disappeared, and then she was recognized again, or Persia or, I mean, that’s okay. But me as long as I keep working.

Matthew Dols 24:14
Okay, so the determined visibles come up a couple of times, I know you have an interest in moving that interest is a bad way of phrasing it, but like a advocacy for women and in the arts. So yeah, how is that manifesting that how are you doing that? I know you have recently been working at a gallery that represents primarily women artists. So like, tell me a little bit more about this. I’m going to act the fool in this, you know, being a white man kind of thing. So like, educate me, please.

Petra Gupta Valentová 24:47
I’ve worked for 11 years. So now I am get back at Anita Schabowski gallery, which is a small gallery on Upper East Side. It was established in 1982. And it’s one of these new york lilla champs New York little gallery that is not in the mainstream, but continues independently showing what it decided to show which is in this case 50s and 60s, abstract expressionist York School of abstraction. And Anita is not showing only women, but she continuous tradition of women dealers and galleries like Martha Jackson or Betty Parsons, she is devoted to a certain period of the 50s and 60s and, and I like that she never gave up like, it’s some of these artists are. I mean, all of these artists are contemporaries of big names like Jackson Pollock or Clifford stell. And they were friends many times, but they didn’t make it to the way to the top all the way to the top, but they’re still there, work is still very, very important part of the period of the certain era. And what is art, art is really a representation of a certain period, and more voices we can hear or more people we can see it gives more complex image of a certain area. So I’m in love with these artists, I’m in LA for their work, I can see their careers. few times I had to photograph the work or map had to but I photographed the work. When they were at the end of the life or they passed away I had the honor to photograph the word and categorize it. And I think that also changed a little bit my perspective on our art world. I think it’s important in that these people kept creating, and they kept growing, and they have some strong work and some less strong work. But don’t we all and so that’s for the gallery, so the gallery works with certain error. And thanks to that I could see in depth lives and work of many artists of the certain area. And you know, now is a one of the artists once in a while comes into auction and or is or visible on metal gallery takes them over and starts pushing their work more. But they were all to me. important artists over that period.

Matthew Dols 27:38
I guess the question Would that I, I’m thinking in my head is like how does it feel like, because I see these like memes about like, you know, there are lots of famous women artists, but only after they’re 80 years old, or only after they’re dead, all this kind of stuff like Nah, man. I don’t know, you know, I’ve got my own opinion on that. How does that feel for you?

Petra Gupta Valentová 28:00
Oh, yeah. Now I remember your initial question to educate you as a male. So what I want to say it’s that certain support community is very important. And I think we sometimes have to stick together and help each other as women and in a, in a male dominated world. So I really respect Anita for pushing for this artists, but especially for women artists. And I feel that without community and without helping each other, it’s really hard to make. So I think, yes, we need in a male dominated art world, we need the need helping each other. And that’s how I feel like I feel that without community I would be lost, I would be much. I mean, because I have a good community around me from from either Academy of Fine Arts or from from Hunter College here, or even from other women that that I met through my life. I am happy with not being in a center or being invisible because I can always get feedback. I can always talk to other women artists, my respect or women or even men, but I feel that the certain sensitivity that women put into their art is very important to me and I relate to it. So I feel that I am lucky by having a great community and be very great here at Hunter College. And I’m still in touch with a lot of my classmates. I have to say that it was a good tear and the break Jody linky Chow was now quite visible is one of my close friends. Or Kathleen Vance was behind front gallery on on lower east side are really I’m grateful that I can be in touch with them and I can always call them like Hey, what do you think about this piece? Like what do you think? Would you like to give me a study visit? So yeah, it’s a good it’s a good community.

Matthew Dols 29:58
Okay with that in the eye. I’m fascinated. There’s a little bit you just mentioned, like studio visits in New York. How is that working these days.

Petra Gupta Valentová 30:09
So right now I’m part of the small show called growth, which is a rhombus place based in Brooklyn. So we, it’s, it’s online, like everything else. And like yesterday, we had a zoom studio visit. So we put Catalina Alan Franco, also my friend, and classmate, put, who is who established the space, put together group of artists. And what I like about her concert is that she invited artists who invited other artists. So that’s a good way how to grow the community now to also bring the work that he would maybe not pick up as a curator at the first place. And I think everybody benefits from that. So she put together this show, which is online, and organized some events around it like to zoom meetings, as we all walk through the studio, or live Instagram, walk through the studio, and things like that. So that’s how it works. And also, I used to have studio in Prague and I used a studio in Long Island City where it was still industrial, before gentrification, again, here we go with gentrification things in New York change very quickly. And now for the past month and a half. I’m again, lucky enough to have a studio in Bronx, which I’m fascinated by, and I am falling in love with it, again, the mixture of industrial and residential before developers that then start tearing down the small factories and change everything into candles. So sort of like a wave that we have to write are this always, you know, at the beginning, and then, and then there’s a big wave that takes over?

Matthew Dols 31:49
Yeah, it’s true everywhere, every city I’ve ever lived in me. And whenever the artists move into a neighborhood, then it becomes attractive to the next group of people. And then slowly it could well, sometimes quickly, it gets very gentrified, but artists seem to always be the first like, we’re the ones were the catalysts. Yes.

Petra Gupta Valentová 32:07
And I’ve seen it in Dumbo, and I seen it in Long Island City. And now let’s see how long Bronx or at least this part of Bronx where I am. lost.

Matthew Dols 32:17
Okay, got a question. I want to go back to something cookbook. Tell me more about

Petra Gupta Valentová 32:25
that was part of my graduate project at Hunter College. And it’s sort of was the escalation of several things that I was going through. So number one, I was working in a bar in Lower East Side. So I mentioned illegally. And I’ve seen all these young people just going there and sitting hold them drawing and doing nothing. And I was like, Oh, my God, like, where do they get a time to do all that? Number two was, I just could not meet anybody in Europe, because I was all the time working. And the only people I was meeting or prospective partners. Were Trump chunkin guys from the bars around and I was like, Oh, my God, where do I meet somebody? Before I went to New York, I spent a lot of time in Finland. It’s a country that is very, very close to my heart. And I wanted to go back to Finland. So I sort of put together Oh, and then there was a port aspect, which was a dream project or dream thing. So all this put together created a cookbook, which was a performance piece, I put together an ad looking for ideal guy. And the question was, who is an ideal guy in New York? Is it that tall, blonde, dark, rich, old young? There were so many opportunities. I mean, there were so many possibilities, right? But with my fascination of Finland, I put together an ad for a Sami guy, who was solidstate, 150,000 Sami people in a world. So how many?

Matthew Dols 34:04
Hold on wait, wait, what a Sami guy,

Petra Gupta Valentová 34:07
Sami, indigenous group of people from Northern Europe, Finland, Sweden, Russian, a Russian peninsula. So I was always fascinated by them. And as I said, I spend a lot of time in Finland and my dream was to go and work in I love winter. And I just wanted to go to the northern part of Finland and work there. I had also close friend who married now as somebody of Assamese descent, and horse matter was a storyteller from Sami community. And so I sort of put together this three project of me finding a Sami guy in New York.

Matthew Dols 34:52
My heritage is Finnish if that means anything. Yeah.

Petra Gupta Valentová 34:58
Yeah, I mean, I limit. It’s the kind of people that I know.

Matthew Dols 35:04
I will be visiting Norway and Iceland soon. So hopefully I’ll get to know some people from that region. And I had a guest many, very early on the podcast from Finland and it was a fabulous conversation. Very fascinating way.

Petra Gupta Valentová 35:18
Alright, beautiful people.

Matthew Dols 35:20
Not only beautiful people, but amazing government support for the arts.

Petra Gupta Valentová 35:25
So right. Yes, yes,

Matthew Dols 35:27
she was. She was complaining, okay, like so this is her complaint. She goes, Yeah, the government only pays for my studio and my art supplies.

Petra Gupta Valentová 35:38
It’s a very different story to be an artist in, in Finland.

Matthew Dols 35:44
That’s insane. Like that. She was complaining that that’s all they like, what else are they supposed to pay for? Like the use of everything? We’ve got art supplies, and a studio paid by the government. Why are you complaining

Petra Gupta Valentová 35:58
they have their their own issues. But it’s a beautiful country, very creative people, the sweetest people I know. And I miss it. And I miss my friends in Finland, where I also studied and did some art residencies and exhibit it. But that’s a whole different studies. So back to the cookbook.

Matthew Dols 36:15
I want to come back to that.

Petra Gupta Valentová 36:16
So right after I got Fulbright scholarship, I actually was at a residency, several months residency in Alma, in Finland. That’s why sort of the Sami project was a continuation of my work in Finland. And so to concentrate on these different directions that I was going, and all these different ideas, and all these different things that are happening around me, and in my life, it ended up in a cookbook, which was represented so that the simple idea behind that was regardless looking for a guy in New York, how to represent that how to put it together. So it was several months taking performance, where I put an ad on Craigslist. And the ideal guy was represented by the some people because it’s a very narrow group of people. And I just needed to make it very specific to make the subject of my search, very specific. And I was getting the responses and needing the guys. And then another question was, what is the best representation of the person that you’re meeting and you’re on nothing about? So I asked them for recipes of their ideal food. And then I invited my single girlfriends and we were cooking these recipes, and just talking about it. That’s what it was a whole conversation based on both sides. And the whole performance was put together in a book that I published in 2007. That is actually a cookbook with 12 recipes. 12 guys whom I met. I mean, there’s some editing to it, and it took a few months, not everybody made it to the cookbook. Not all the recipes were there. But that’s what happens when you have put together frustration from under paying job and being alone in in the city and a dream and multicultural environment.

Matthew Dols 38:23
All right, I now go back to residencies. I love the idea of residencies. I think they’re absolutely magical. Now, of course, I hate the ones where they like make you pay for stuff

Petra Gupta Valentová 38:34
not ever today. Because right like they should not even be there. They should not

Matthew Dols 38:38
exist. To me. That’s just like that’s a money grab. That’s not a residency residencies.

Petra Gupta Valentová 38:44
Yeah, it’s the same way to galleries that that are exhibitions that ask you to submit the work where the payment, oh, my God, like that’s, I get rid of these. This is ridiculous. And I never never never apply for any thing like that. Because it’s it’s just, it’s just turning everything into an industry.

Matthew Dols 39:02
it already is. And

Petra Gupta Valentová 39:04
I know they’re just enforcing reinforcing that idea.

Matthew Dols 39:08
It is. It’s the like, if they could remove money from the art world. The art world would be magnificent.

Petra Gupta Valentová 39:18
And I believe that. I mean, that’s my whole idea. I don’t really I never signed up for money and art together in the same line. And that’s maybe my problem.

Matthew Dols 39:31
I know it’s all of our problems.

Petra Gupta Valentová 39:33
I don’t pursue it more but I am idealist in this I really believe that that money and art should not be in a same on the same line.

Matthew Dols 39:42
Although I’m a huge fan, I wish that I could barter for everything. Like if I could trade my artistic abilities or my artistic works or whatever it was for my dentistry and my mortgage like I would be in heaven. That would be magnificent because to me Then it’s just a, you know, equal trade of appreciation of Hey, thanks for the more the house, and I’ll give you this, this art. But like, as soon as money gets involved, whether it’s in residences or these competitions, you enter in galleries or whatever, it becomes too much of a, an industry thing because like, then like, if it’s a gallery, and let’s say they’re running a competition, and it costs $25, to enter, all they care about is the volume of people entering not the quality of people entering. And to me, that’s a big problem.

Petra Gupta Valentová 40:34
I totally agree. And I think we are saving German generation. I’m 4647. So yeah, here we go. And I’ve seen, I mean, I’ve seen so much in the art world I’ve seen, and especially to the word for the gallery, and going to art fairs, etc. I mean, I’ve seen things that should not be there and things that should have been there. And I mean, it’s, it’s such a mess. So I really am doing everything to stay away from that and not to make me depressed or not to be dragged into it. At the same time maintaining my work and my development.

Matthew Dols 41:15
It’s really hard though, because like, there’s so many different avenues to like, on the one hand, you go to an art fair, there may be some magnificent works that are incredibly inspirational, that you’re like holy shit, that should be in a museum. And then on the flip side of that, at the same art fair, there could be crap that you’re like, Oh, my God, that’s this kind of shit I made before I even went to art school. Like it’s just horrible on educated on poorly poor craftsmanship, or even the scope and range of stuff and and yet, somehow, they all seem to make it. And I don’t understand it. Like, this is sort of like one of my big frustrations that sort of led me to creating this podcast is I don’t understand how the art world works. Because like, some people that have no talent can be, quote, unquote, successful. And some people with amazing talents never get success.

Petra Gupta Valentová 42:14
Yes. And I can see it at the gallery where I work that I think it helped me a lot to see things in a perspective that I’m going back to it again, what’s important is just to keep going and to keep creating and put all this behind you. And because there’s no, you can’t, there’s no logic, there’s no you can’t, no, there’s no way.

Matthew Dols 42:41
There’s logic, I know, I want an Excel spreadsheet that somebody tells me like if you do this, this, this and this, you will be successful, like whatever that is like, there could be 100 different Excel spreadsheets, depending on your medium or your subject matter. I don’t care. But I’m so tired of like the entire arts industry is based, as far as I can tell, on who you know.

Petra Gupta Valentová 43:07
That’s why I think it’s important to just stay happy within yourself and keep going. And I know it’s it’s idealistic, but how else do you make sense of it? Like it’s a real it’s about? Why did you decide to do art, you decided, like, what were the what were the original reasons to create an art and just, you just need to stick with

Matthew Dols 43:31
it was the my reason for doing art is a stupid, horrible reason, which is I got to a university with the intention of studying a particular major. And they said, Oh, we don’t offer that major. And I literally just sitting in there in the counselor’s office, I said, fuck it, I’ll just take art.

Petra Gupta Valentová 43:48
Okay, that’s interesting. So that’s how I ended. It was and it can be for me, I was, I think five years old. And I said, Oh my god, I want to be an artist that there was nobody in my family who was an artist and, and it was a deep communism. And, and I mean, my path was so complicated. And so many times people told me you cannot do art, you can’t be this, you can’t be that I was like, fuck it. Just, of course, I want to I will do what I want. And I just continue doing what I want. And yeah, I heard so many times, or No, you cannot pay it. Uh, no, you cannot do sculpture. No, no, you should try to get married. And so first of all, like it all just, you just have what I want.

Matthew Dols 44:28
My parents like, they didn’t actively encouraged me not to be an artist, but they sort of passively did it because because my father actually went to school. He got his undergraduate in, I think, just our painting, I forget what it was. And then he decided that it wasn’t for him, like because he learned about the industry of the arts. And he was like, I want nothing to do with that. And he had to call you to the ministry. But so he sort of was always sort of like yeah, it’s it’s a nice idea and it’s a lot Have fun, but like the industry is the thing that crushes the spirit of the creative person. So like being a creative person, absolutely magical, romantic, beautiful, inspirational in many ways. However, it’s the business of it side of it that just like crushes us all.

Petra Gupta Valentová 45:19
Yeah, I know. I, I guess I always relied on something else for income. And I actually studied economic school as a high school. And it helped me. I didn’t get into art until in my 20s, because I never had any support. And when I was 18 years old, I started going and started drawing Among these, like seven and eight years old children, and 13, and 14 years old kids. And I was like, Oh, my God, these kids are like, they’re already shaped to be artists. And I’m coming here as an adult, next to these kids who were pushed, because of their talent, and I sort of started on my own. But I mean, I don’t regret anything. But what I want to say is that it helped me actually to have a background in something else, and something more, more tangible. So when I started working at a gallery on every site, it helped me to have to know how to do spec spreadsheets and how to do you know, Photoshop and Illustrator, and be capable of doing also office work for the gallery. And not only, I mean, what creative work is there, I was helping with catalogs and creating an exhibition but but initially, to have one foot on the ground, and to have experiences in certain business management or spreadsheet, creation or office creation helped me to maintain this work. Oh, yeah.

Matthew Dols 46:49
I mean, as a professor, I always tell my students, I’m like, you know, being creative, having good craftsmanship, having good ideas, all those kinds of all very important, but the most important thing is to have a good foundation of running a business. Because no matter how much like a lot of us creative people, we go to being creative, because we’re like, Fuck the corporate world, fuck the business world. I don’t want to be any part of that. I want to do sort of things my way and in my own whatever. But what you don’t understand these days now I Chris, maybe it was different 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, but these days being an artist is a business.

Petra Gupta Valentová 47:29
And that’s that’s the fact.

Matthew Dols 47:31
Sad but true.

Petra Gupta Valentová 47:34
I don’t even know what the situation MFA programs is right now. I have no idea. I’m so detached from it.

Matthew Dols 47:43
MFA programs, as far as I know, other than like Yale, which of course, you know, pumps out the best of the best are the ones that are assumed to be the best of the best. The the I mean, they’re just creating the next generation of teachers is really all that an MFA program does as far as I’m concerned. I mean, that’s why I went so like I’m not knocking it but like I went to be because I wanted to be a professor. But a lot of a lot of the artists that go as to get their MFA. So like, there was no reason for them to get their MFA. MFA is, to me is pretty much just for either teachers, or for the connections like, you know, if you go to Yale MFA, there’s a very specific career track that you’re creating by doing that.

Petra Gupta Valentová 48:29
I think from this perspective, I’m totally over educated artist, but to MFA, someone PhD. I’m still sitting here and creating quite quietly, my work.

Matthew Dols 48:46
Alright, well, that’s sort of No way. Okay. Yeah. Are there any topics that we haven’t talked about that you’d like to talk about or anything you want to expand on the read, I didn’t give you enough time to expand on

Petra Gupta Valentová 48:58
I think I would say that past year was a mess, and it’s still continuous. And we sort of had to find a way how to survive it for me. creativity can represent itself in many different ways. And I love cooking. I mean, this cookbook, and I’d also love people. I am cheerilee fascinated by children and their energy. So for me last year was a lot about these three things. I became perfect Indian wife, my husband never had such amazing Indian food. I was cooking everything from top of my head and part of my creativity went to that actually. And it made me happy and the same was I did with my children. I made very sure that they have very positive good here, despite the fact of being at home and being cut away from their have friends, physically and from the school. And I think these are all part of creativity. And I think that’s why I see myself as a multimedia artist because I put myself into these different activities that I find highly, highly creative. And that’s maybe why also my practices or the place because really, it’s not about what is to peace. It’s what is the process? Okay, but wait, I’ve

Matthew Dols 50:29
got a question. Because I always wonder this about artists, especially like, as you’re saying, like, oh, we’ll see how it goes in 20 years. Let’s see if people still find my work in 20 years. How are you storing all this work?

Petra Gupta Valentová 50:44
So I do drawings. So drawings are easy, right? It’s a flat files, for a lot of work ends up in photography. So that’s also easy. That’s a digital file that can be printed out. I created neons. But, I mean, I have many ideas. So neons welcome, again, when there is a time, fabrics are relatively easy as well. And I think that’s what brought me to fabrics. The fact that I was getting too many paintings and sculptures in my studio is like, dammit, where am I supposed to start this place also store these things. And also because I am really between continents, like I have a I still have work in Finland stored in my friend’s place. And I think in Prague, and I have things in India, and I have things in New York, and they got all over and I was like dammit, like this is ridiculous. I’m just, I’m just leaving things behind. And it’s annoying, it’s annoying for people that are storing dominance honoring for me. So I think that’s also one of the reasons why I got more and more towards fabric that is relatively easy, it can be printed, we can print only what we want. Also, that’s why I like slow process and a small factory setting and on demand fabrics. So we basically store or I basically store the patterns and the ideas, but we make them when we need to.

Matthew Dols 52:11
Okay now I’ve actually been to India and I’ve been to some of these block printing places. Now when you say the word factory or do you literally mean like a like industrial factory or do you mean like a bunch of tables where people just are standing hand printing them like that’s

Petra Gupta Valentová 52:28
a bunch of tables of course but let’s say if we if we think about workshops in all the sheets that are starting to sew all the sheets is much more industrialized I mean strategy it’s a structured schema three disk is a much more industrial I mean still family based workshop, but it’s much more industrialized space where two big tables and process that is allowing bigger production while all the sheets is one little tiny table and one person from dancing or family at Danziger who is doing the work you know slowly and by himself and when we talk about India I our budget was specifically it can be Susheela who has I don’t know how many like five tables on a roof where we did the workshops or she initially had bond and two tables and I think they they broke a little bit or it can be her cousin or neighbor who has only one table on the roof or on the ground floor of her house. So these are all family based workshops. So factory is not a not a right words. Thank you for correcting me

Matthew Dols 53:39
well you know like I’m American when I think factory I think like conveyor belts and large steel products of doing things you know.

Petra Gupta Valentová 53:48
Okay, so it’s a workshops family based workshops.

Matthew Dols 53:51
Okay, side note India my absolute favorite food from India and I know you’re probably going to hate me for saying this is non

Petra Gupta Valentová 54:00
Oh no, no, no, no, it’s like we are not it’s just running through this family December’s running through now like crazy I take every day

Matthew Dols 54:07
do you have a good recipe for making non at

Petra Gupta Valentová 54:09
home, luckily Whole Foods and other places are doing Nan’s that are excellent, and I’m just buying them but I could give you a lot of recipes. My husband likes the whole family law said asthma. And just this morning, I was making matter two three meals because my husband’s nephew is also limited us and now I am cooking, cooking cooking all the time. And I am just making everybody happy. I hope

Matthew Dols 54:38
I lived in the Middle East for six years and so like I got a lot of the biryanis and all that kind of stuff. So like Yeah, but non is the one not Oh, no, you know, you probably know my favorite beverage in the world. cadac

Petra Gupta Valentová 54:55
Okay, so this family de la of this family laughs That arch mom. bindi, I Tao obviously got our lab, which is a very, very specific It’s a type of melon. It’s a very,

Matthew Dols 55:11
you don’t do cadac

Petra Gupta Valentová 55:13
I don’t know. Oh,

Matthew Dols 55:15
I love. So good.

Petra Gupta Valentová 55:18
I mean, I do. Let’s see. Okay, that’s fine. So I’ll look it up for you. And I’ll make it sometimes

Matthew Dols 55:26
Oh, no, I can. I’ve already got the recipe. I got the recipe, but I’m the only one my family that drinks it. So

Petra Gupta Valentová 55:32
yeah, nobody drinks it here. But what really helped me few years ago, when I was doing my research, I sent my kids to a school one summer school in India, I think they loved me that summer, because they were in 11 months, in three schools on three continents. And I don’t think that they want to do it again, ever. They were still small and they were obedient. I think now, it’s not going to happen again. But because they were three months in school in hardcourts who in shape or, or they had to eat in a school cafeteria, they got very, very tolerant or they are not screaming no to me when I when I give them different Indian food. So that was very, very helpful. And they they grow to their palate, and they can tolerate a lot of

Matthew Dols 56:22
marvelous. Alright, so let’s wrap this up. I have two questions that I asked everybody at the end, which one is, could you name for me three, sort of what I would call noteworthy people that are somehow inspiring you or you’re engaged with at the current moment, artists,

Petra Gupta Valentová 56:40
artists, I would say I have to name again, my boss, Anita Schabowski, although she’s not an artist, but I do respect her. And her work that she’s doing with artists and I through her I met many amazing artists, women and male who are unfortunately, died or that and I know we talked about it, I brought up our artists just passed away due to COVID complications. And it’s very sad, because there’s a whole generation of women artists and artists in general who are disappearing. Sometimes I feel that we didn’t even notice them. And now we are losing the possibility to notice them and to be aware of them. And I think it’s sad, because tics are really, really disappearing very quickly, more than than we want. That’s somebody I would like to mention, I also am very grateful to my classmates and friends from New York and from Prague as well. My respect for being in touch number one, number two, for keeping working and it’s a whole whole group. I know that you mentioned tart, when we talked to tart was I mean, it’s not in existence anymore. That’s tart was a female collective that established at Hunter College. And for many years, I was a member of it. And it really helped me a lot during the special when I finished a school, we did a bunch of studio visits exhibitions together, we published few scenes, and it was a really, really important support structure. And I would recommend to everybody, or to people who have people from MFA programs to create structure like this, it doesn’t really take much, but I think it helped enormously, even few years can make a difference few years after you finish the school, when you suddenly disappear from that feedback that you’re getting, and you’re on your own. I think that helps a lot. So although it’s not in existence, I would mention that I would like to mention it, because it’s very important. So it will start and oh my god and then I would like to mention also women artists too, were not trained in art field, but they reinvented themselves and they are creating one of them as my dear friend Samantha Mehta, we are together an exhibition, that one would be a Jody Lindy Chow, who is my dear friend, but in general, I would say don’t give up. And I respect them for not giving up for reinventing themselves for for continuing creating and for finding support structures and ways how they are and we are together through this. Alright,

Matthew Dols 59:51
and you sort of started to do it. But the last question is any any advice for the sort of the next generation on ways that they could do things easier, better. Whatever, like, you know, like my big one is is find a find a community and stick with it, instead of making my mistake which was moving too much and not keeping in touch with people, which seems to be the opposite for you, you seem to have been very good at that. And I’m slightly envious of that.

Petra Gupta Valentová 1:00:19
I am moving but really New York is my home, like I work in Adana, I work in Czech Republic, but New York is my home. And because I went through the grad school here, and because I stayed in New York, it allowed me to stay in touch with my friends and my classmates. So my big community is really hear from my classmates and friends that were part of my MFA education. So although I moved and I worked, I mean, I’m still in touch with my friends from academic finance, as well, in Czech Republic, or even friends from Finland, where I Went, went as an exchange student as well. So I think it’s about honesty, a lot of like, being not, again, not putting your ego in it and just be very honestly friendly. And able to do things for each other, without any drama, and a unnecessary ego that you put in and power game and all these things. So I would say just forget all this and just be genuine and genuine in my work and create and like people,

Matthew Dols 1:01:33
it’s it’s just very funny to me to hear you say this, because I don’t know where I got the idea. Maybe it was TV, movies, books, whatever this sort of romantic, you know, individual artists in their studio, toiling over their blobby blob bullshit, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee all day. But I’ve learned it as of course, I’ve got an older, wiser had more experiences that I mean, the arts is not a solo practice. Now, maybe the art of making your work is a solo thing, but like, but then it becomes part of a community soon, as soon as you show it to somebody else. Because there’s that need of peers, there’s that need of feedback. There’s the need of curators, there’s the need of gallerist, there’s there are all these people that end up becoming the network that build your career that if you do not have them, you’re kind of just making art in a studio. And that’s it. Like you’d really need those people.

Petra Gupta Valentová 1:02:32
You’re also not working in a vacuum. And I think one of the big difference that was when I started more traditional or more classical education or our approach in Academy of Fine Arts, at least in a restoration and figurative sculpture. And then I went to MFA program at Hunter College, and I’m really lucky to have experience from both education system. I think one of the striking difference was the year at Hunter College, the first day, or one of the first thing that you learned was that everything’s political, whatever you do is part of something like every, it’s not a vacuum, right? It’s a statement on subject, your work is not just a political or entertainer, it’s a part of the time, it’s a statement on something, even if you are not aware of it. And I think that’s the same for what you’re saying, like you don’t create a vacuum like you create next to your peers you create next to their work, like your work is coming from from somewhere. And it’s a reaction to something.

Matthew Dols 1:03:36
Well, it’s funny, because I literally just had this conversation on As with the previous guest, which was that I often wonder, like, was I part of a movement that simply hasn’t been named yet? Like it will. You know, when I think of work, being political, I think of like, it had a movement, it had a reason it had an intention kind of thing. So like, was I part of that and like, how many decades if not centuries, is it gonna take to sort of retro actively look back and say, Oh, yes, he was part of this thing. Like and whether or not I even was part of a thing, who the hell knows. It’s sort of sad, like, I wish during our lifetime that we can be sort of appreciated more than later in life or after our lives.

Petra Gupta Valentová 1:04:22
It might not even be named ever or it might not even become visible, or concentrated sucker. It’s, it’s like a bunch of reverse or a bunch of streams and some will disappear and some will make it to the bigger stream and stronger stream and, and it’s just, we’re all part of that. And, you know, maybe whenever I give lectures or better whenever I do talk to other people as educator or whenever I do, talk, you know, in public, I’m always Saying that you’ll never know whom you touch, you might say one thing and it might change somebody else’s life work, you know, it kind of be miniature exchange that happens somewhere on a corner or or just outside the main conversation and it can influence the other person in a way that will have a important influence on their career. Like you never know you never know whom you touch with video words, video work, you never know whom you inspire. And I think we should not forget that we should not forget that it’s not really only it’s not only about us, it’s about people around us. And to that, I want to say that previous question I need to name my friends in India who are helping me a lot with this project. It’s a Jeremy Fred’s head and want to come voice and we are putting together initiative that will represent the women artists, mohalla, Prince Mahela Prince, and my healer means woman. And so this is something that we are now going to push more label or initiative that will support that is supporting the artisans, women, artisans, and their design, not our design, their design that was created in collaboration with different artists and designers. So we are in a process of inviting more artists, designers to collaborate with the women, black printing artisans, give them their expertise, but push away their own ego, and give the platform to these women and to the artists. And so that’s something that I’m working on now. And I had to name them just a very, very important part, and they’re helping me a lot and we are sort of creating together so they can’t be forgotten,

Matthew Dols 1:07:04
more or less. Well, thank you very much.

Petra Gupta Valentová 1:07:08
Thank you for this nice conversation.

The Wise Fool is produced by Fifty14. I am your host Matthew Dols – http://www.matthewdols.com And the audio for this episode was edited by Jakub Černý. The Wise Fool is supported in part by an EEA grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in an effort to work together for a green competitive and inclusive Europe. We would also like to thank our partners Hunt Kastner – http://huntkastner.com in Prague, Czech Republic and Kunstsentrene i Norge – https://www.kunstsentrene.no in Norway. Links to EEA grants and our partner organizations are available in the show notes or on our website https://wisefoolpod.com