Patricia Van Dalen (Maracaibo, Venezuela, 1955) is a visual artist living and working in Miami, USA, with an extensive career that spans over four decades. After earning a degree in graphic design from the Instituto de Diseño IDD Fundación Neumann-INCE in Caracas, she trained and worked in Paris with artist Yaacov Agam, between 1980 and 1986, in the creation and development of the pedagogical program Agam Method of Visual Education.

Van Dalen’s artwork has been the subject of several solo exhibitions such as Pinturas y dibujos, Galería Minotauro, Caracas, 1985; Patricia Van Dalen, Sala RG, Casa de Rómulo Gallegos, Caracas, 1991; Primavera, Sala Mendoza, Caracas, 1993; Casa/Jardín/Ventanas, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Caracas, 1998; Del cosmos al jardín, Museo de los Niños, Caracas, 1999; Luminous Gardens, Fairchild Tropical Garden, Miami, 2003; Color fragmentado, Sala TAC, Caracas, 2008; Colección primavera-verano 2010, Galería La Cuadra, Caracas, 2010; El color como estructura, at the Centro Cultural Chacao-La Caja and Galería GBG Arts, Caracas, 2012; High Voltage, ArtMedia Gallery, Miami, 2013; Ride the rail, ArtMedia Gallery, Miami, 2017. Also, special projects such as the Operativo Grapas, a one-day interactive exhibition of the Engrapadas series, in Miami in 2016; Abstract Cabinet. Patricia Van Dalen & Emilio Narciso. Duo Project, at Imago Art in Miami, in 2018; (En)grapadas, a selection of stapled works at Cesta República in Madrid, 2019; Iznik Ceramic Tiles for the Modern Tiles Collection, at the Iznik Foundation Research Center in Iznik, Turkey; and the creation of several bespoke hand-tufted rugs woven at Atelier Pinton, for private collections in New York and Caracas. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, such as Bienal de Guayana, Salon Aragua and Salón Michelena, in Venezuela; Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui, in Paris, France; Novos Valores da Arte Latino-Americana, in Brasilia; the Bienal de Estandartes, in Tijuana, Mexico; and Bienal Barro de América Roberto Guevara, in Venezuela and in Brazil. The most recent group exhibitions are For Now: Contemporary Venezuelan Art from de Miami Diaspora, held at the Coral Gables Museum in 2019, Referencias cruzadas. Arte Contemporáneo de Venezuela, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá, in 2020, and the IV Triennial Art in Golf, Arte FITS Foundation, Puerto Rico, in 2021.

Apart from an extensive body of work on canvas and on paper, featured in both private and public collections internationally, Van Dalen has produced multiple site-specific installations, some of them large-scale, mostly in Venezuela and the United States. In 2011, Fragmented Light was specifically designed for display at the University of Georgia’s Miller Learning Center (Athens, GA); in 2014, Natural Intersections for The Kampong Botanic Garden (Coconut Grove) and Data Hall for the Institute for Data Science and Computing at the University of Miami; and in 2022, the ephemeral installation Compass in the Sculpture Garden of The Society of The Four Arts, in Palm Beach, FL, as the 2022-2023 Beyer Artist-in-Residence.

The use of media in her body of work ranges from painting, graphics, collage, prints, drawings, and, more recently, assemblage, photography, and video, to the design of stained glass, tapestries and carpets. Her interest in the intervention of architectural spaces is similarly evident in permanent works created for private residences in Venezuela and the US, as well as public murals in Caracas, such as the urban-scale mural Jardín Lumínico, and the mural Pajaritos, both in ceramic; and in eastern Venezuela, the mosaic floor of the Jardín de Calas plaza, in Río Caribe.

She has earned various awards throughout her career, including the Second Prize at the II Biennale of Visual Arts Christian Dior, Caracas, 1991; the First Prize at the I Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales, Caracas, 1992; the Unique Prize at the 2001 competition for the commission of a large scale mural along the Prados del Este Highway, in Caracas; and the International Association of Art Critics’ 2010 Established Artist AICA Award, at the Venezuela Chapter 2011.

Van Dalen has taught at the Instituto de Diseño Foundation, the School of Architecture of the Central University of Venezuela, and the Villa Planchart Foundation, among others, in Caracas. She regularly teaches workshops at her studio in Miami and in educational and cultural institutions in Miami, such as the Miami Dade College, Eduardo J. Padrón Campus, West Campus, and the Museum of Art and Design MOAD-MDC. In January 2023, she recently conducted five workshops on “(Re)Creating Modern Masterpieces” at The Society of The Four Arts in Palm Beach as the 2022-2023 Beyer Artist-in-Residence.

As an abstract artist, Van Dalen explores in her work the poetics of structures through the fragmentation that affects form, line, surface, space, and color.