Valerie Freeman

Award-winning Artist Valerie Freeman creates spontaneous, hand-built ceramic sculptures and vessels through an organic, expressive process that embraces gestural movement and the unexpected. Her sculptures combine experimental elements and enhanced by her extraordinary signature lustre glaze and Ojai Wild clay techniques.

Freeman also creates expressionistic paintings inspired by the energized, deliberate movements and minimalist intention of Chinese brush painting, embracing its unique ability to create expressive power through a few intentional gestures. Her current painting and sculpture series "That's Love" explores maternal relationships.

Her latest sculptural horses often incorporates Ojai wild clay from her property, California Thomas Fire ashes, and her vessels include casts from local fruit and flora, connecting her work to the landscape and natural world.

Inspired by life, world travel, and her European heritage—with a touch of Neanderthal DNA—Freeman approaches each piece experimentally. Her work is ever-changing, reflecting curiosity, discovery, and the unpredictable nature of clay, fire, and paint.

Freeman earned her BFA from Pratt Institute on scholarship and studied ceramics at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts. She has received numerous awards, grants, and commissions, including recognition from the Municipal Art Society of New York and support from the Ford Foundation. Her work is held in collections and exhibited internationally..