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My name is Valentine Mark Herman, otherwise known as Val Herman -- except in France, where I am known as Mark Herman. (Don't ask!).
 
I am a Conceptual:/Contemporary Artist, Photographer and Writer, and l have been living in Sigean in the South of France since 2002.
The aim of this web-site is to showcase my recent work, most of which is for sale. Please use the Contact page to enquire about work, or just to make contact. I make all sorts of art – collages and assemblages; glass prints and lino prints; water colour, ink and acrylic works; mail art, including stamp art, postcard art and envelope art; 'obsolete technologies' art with vinyl records, 35mm slides and floppy disks; ethnic art, inspired mainly by Aboriginal art; beach art; knitted art, etc. Basically, if I already have something, or if I can find something at a flea market/vide grenier, I can turn it into one form of art or another.
 

My artistic adventures really started when I became an Artist-in-Residence at Galerie Serrencia in Sigean. Then I became one of the founders of the Collectif de Sigean – an ad hoc grouping of international artists, photograpers and sculptors that had some connection with the village. The Collectif held a series of exhibitions and organised the 1st Sigean Festival of Contemporary Art in 2014.

In the Spring of 2015, the Collectif – in my opinion, mistakenly – became a legal entity, the Sigean Association of Contemporary Art (ASAC), and I became it's first President (because no-one else wanted the job). ASAC organised the 2nd Sigean International Festival of Contemporary Art in May 2016. I resigned immediately after this Festival when it became abundently clear that the majority of ASAC's members were neither interested in contemporary art, nor shared my visions of establishing Festivals and exhibitions that featured non-French -- and essentially non-local -- contemporary artists, but preferred the type of 'touristy' art that is found all around here..

 
After my departure, ASAC re-named itself as the 'Sigean Association of Art and Culture' (which allowed it to keep the acronym ASAC, even though its new title implies that art is seperate from culture. At the end of 2018, I was thrown out of ASAC because I was (not incorrectly!) seen as a subservive influence. This worried me not in the least, and, in fact, it bought two quotes to mind:

o one from Groucho Marx, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member'';

o the other from Lyndon Baines Johnson, “It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”;

 

I was far from being pissed off, and with a colleague re-invented the Collectif – now renamed as le Collectif Art Contemporain de Sigean. We also started a new ASAC, the Association Sigean Art Contemporain. During 2019 we organised the '2nd International Salon Art Contemporain', and I held a number of solo exhibitions including 'Dessins', 'Avec Titre', 'Art Abandonée' and 'Surprise!' I plan more exhibitions for 2020, including.'Lettres Françaises', 'Repetitions', Ego-Googling' and 'Boring Postcards'.
 

Moving on to the summer of  2020, the Collectif de Sigean had imploded (again!), and, at the request of the Mairie, I reluctantly agreed to terminate the alternative ASAC (Association Sigean Art Contemporain), so I am all on my own – but that's not a bad place to be. Just before the confinement started, I had a solo exhibition 'Ego Googling', and participated in an exhibition called 'Art et Rugby' – but that only lasted two days before it was closed down by the confinement in mid-March. Now there are no exhibitions on the horizon in the forseeable future.

 

 

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