The exuberant paintings of Valesca Lafrance overflow with life force.  Knowing no boundaries her painted subjects include the vernacular, the political, the cultural, interpersonal relationships and the spiritual.  There is a non hierarchical generosity to the range of works Lafrance faithfully paints. Informed by the visionary, Lafrance’s paintings are a reflection of her life and how she translates and filters the world.  Her latest series and the title of her first New York solo debut, It’s Raining Paint, reflects her deep love for the act of painting, how she receives inspiration for her paintings and a love for the materiality of paint. 

Lafrance is an ordained Haitian Voodoo High Priestess.  She runs a botanica shop in Jamaica, Queens and lives and paints in the back with her two adult daughters Rachel and Lisa.  Lafrance is a self described vampire. She burns the midnight oil, painting deep into the night. I met her when she was a graduate student at Queens College in the Spring of 2022.  Outproducing her younger classmates, the school provided her with two studios to help contain her prolific output.  She received her MFA degree in 2023.  When she is not providing healing services for her community or fundraising to support children in Haiti and Uganda, Lafrance dedicates herself to her highest calling: painting.  Valesca Lafrance is a gift to this world. She rains paint. 

Soloway is pleased to present It’s Raining Paint a solo exhibition of works by Valesca Lafrance curated by Wells Chandler.  Impossible to encompass in just one show, we will have two separate presentations of Lafrance’s work.  It’s Raining Paint will open Sunday October 22nd with a reception from 6-8pm and runs through November 26th.  A second salon-style presentation of Lafrance’s work, It’s Raining Paint II:What a Wonderful World, will open Saturday December 2nd, with a reception from 6-8pm and runs through December 17th.  A catalog of Lafrance’s work containing over ninety works with texts by Wells Chandler, Glenn Goldberg and Erika Ranee will be available for purchase alongside It’s Raining Paint t-shirts, cups of plenty and tools for healing from Valesca’s shop.

Text by Wells Chandler

Photography by Manal Abu-Shaheen