Val Britton was born in New Jersey and lives in Portland, Oregon. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from California College of the Arts. Britton creates immersive, collaged works on paper and site-specific installations that explore physical and psychological spaces. Using maps as metaphors, her fragmented, exploded landscapes investigate memory, history, and the possibilities of abstraction. Much of her work was initially influenced by her father, a cross-country truck driver and mechanic, and his loss.
A recipient of the Pollock–Krasner Foundation Grant and the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship, she has participated in over a dozen residencies and fellowships including Headlands Center for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Recology AIR Program, Kala Art Institute, and the Golden Foundation. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in museums, galleries, art fairs, alternative spaces, and non-profit institutions nationally and internationally.
An award-winning public artist, Britton has created permanent commissions for San Francisco International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, and NYC Percent for Art Public Art for Public Schools among others. Her work is part of numerous collections including the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the Cleveland Clinic, de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, Facebook Headquarters, the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Print Collection of the Library of Congress, National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York Historical Society, New York Public Library, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the US Department of State Art in Embassies Program in Brussels, Belgium.