Valerie Beller grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and was always creatively inclined. As a child she spent a great deal of time drawing, studying ballet, singing, and playing clarinet. Beller lived briefly in Spain and is fluent in Spanish. In 1987, she received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied art history and painting. She studied painting, printmaking and filmmaking for a summer at the San Francisco Art Institute. Beller received her MFA in 1991 from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

It has been noted by viewers and critics that Valerie Beller’s work makes evocative connections between nature and science, between the cosmic and the personal, and between memory and the sublime. The range of mood, color and composition in Beller’s work reveals a depth of both painterly discipline and emotional acuity that resonates with viewers. For more analysis of her work, see Lisa Wainwright’s short essay.

Valerie Beller’s work is in over two hundred private and public collections across the United States.