Andrea La Valleur-Purvis

Andrea La Valleur-Purvis cuts and welds steel into forms that hold opposing forces without resolving them. The work rewards every step it takes to walk around it. A study in equilibrium — something you keep choosing.

Her sculptures range from pedestal-scale pieces to large outdoor installations, held in private collections and exhibited in galleries and public spaces throughout Texas.

In 2025, she received the Artistic Merit Award from the Luxembourg Art Prize and the Art 100 VAA International Prize, with work featured in Glasstire, NPR Radio, and Cohart Magazine.

She holds a BFA in Sculpture from the College of Visual Arts (St. Paul, MN) and lives and works in Waco, Texas.

Exhibitions

Recent Sculptures

The Why behind my work

Artist Statement

Steel is a forgiving material. If I cut something, I can weld it back together. If I bend something with heat, I can return it to its previous shape — not seamlessly, but that’s the point. I want the decisions to be indelible.

My sculptures begin as flat sheets. The curves and shapes emerge from removing material with a plasma cutter, then shaped with hand tools and welded or riveted together. The process stays visible in the work.

The forms rest on a small, precise point. Most top elements move when you touch them. I want you to touch them. Walk around. The sculptures have more than one shape, and it rewards the steps it takes to find out: a new angle, a new shape from negative space, color that catches the light differently.

My work comes from a question I’ve been living with for a long time: what does it feel like to hold irresolvable forces — rigidity and flexibility, stability and change — without collapsing the tension into a resolution? I grew up across British, German, and American contexts, watching how identity gets negotiated, how to navigate what we’re expected to become. The sculptures come from that lived experience.

Equilibrium is this work. It is a practice, intentional, ongoing, staying in the question.