Angel-ho Valerio

Virtual Exhibition

Garden of Diva

“A myriad of the marginalized trans experience in the 21st century”

In the age of intersectionality, we are able to figure out and discover new discourse through differences and uniqueness of each other where my exhibition, Garden of Diva, demonstrates a myriad of ideas surrounding Trans identity, human connection, Mental Health Awareness (Schizophrenia), and softness in images and sculptures of healing and mourning. There is an unveiling of the divine feminine in question with mortality, and the saturation of fantasy, not as an escape, but instead standing as a vision or daydreaming from the artist's critique of society and themselves.

The struggles of gender dysphoria and neurodivergent become the core themes in my new work. I was not able to transition my gender due to my chronic mental disorder, schizophrenia. Facing stigma on a spectrum, a controversial neurodivergence, and a presentation of non-conforming gender, my storytelling is centered in surreal dream worlds inspired by astrology, drag, being trans, and my personal spirituality. Putting lived experiences in question such as trans women not being able to find romantic relationships that value them, critique, and storytelling, I demonstrate the values and principles of a tortured mind and provoke beauty that aims to heal the viewer with a gaze exchanged. It demonstrates the politics of the body, gender, sexuality, unity, love, compassion, loneliness, and themes of transhumanism, uncovering queer ideologies through photo manipulation and dream cognition.