Initially influenced by various minimalist and conceptual tendencies, Belin has become interested in the photographic medium itself. The deconstruction attracts her; detecting and demonstrating contradictions of the observable. What constitutes the terrain of Belin, are her experiments with her artistic ideas on light, matter and the “body” of things and beings in general. Clouding representations of reality that only have lose resemblance to real events, Belin highlights our collective fantasy by theatrically showing the very processes that are at work in creating this ‘fake’ reality world. A large part of Belin’s work is an insidious critique of today’s mercenary illusion of perfection.
Work of Valérie Belin has been exhibited extensively including in the Centre Pompidou, (Paris); Maison Européenne de la Photographie, (Paris); Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain (Paris); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, (Paris); MoMA - Museum of Modern Art (New York), het LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles), the Victoria & Albert Museum (London), the Kunsthaus Zurich (Zürich); Huis Marseille, Amsterdam and Musée de l'Élysée (Lausanne).
Her work is part of many collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’art Moderne de la ville de Paris; Kunsthaus Zürich; Los Angeles County Museum; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam; International Center for Photography, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Musée de l’Élysée, Lausanne; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris.
In 2015 Valérie Belin won the Prix Pictet. In 2017 she was made an officer of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Belin graduated from the École Nationale des Beaux-arts in 1988, where she focused on American art of the ‘60s and ‘70s. She went on to study philosophy of art at the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris.