The Artist

DEVI VALLABHANENI

“I never set out to be an artist,” Devi often says. Her path to art creation and design was born of her life experience and influences, resulting in a constant experiment in creativity and personal growth.

Devi was three when she and her mother left southern India to join her father who had just graduated from the University of Chicago. There, on the shores of Lake Michigan, she grew up to be a top student, with a gift for math. At home, she spent hours playing calculus games with her father. Multiplication tables held no secret for her, and she developed a mathematical brain that would not only lead her to become a successful Harvard Business School alumna and business woman, but would later help her conceptualize her complex embroidery creations.

As a child and young teenager, Devi traveled every summer back to Hyderabad, India, to spend time with her grandparents. In their Indo-European mansion, she dreamed of princesses in saris, played hide and seek in the garden’s fragrant bushes, and practiced her budding embroidery skills with local artisans. Later, needlepoint became synonymous with peace and quiet, a respite from the pressure of a business career.

In 2011, she created her first embroidery pieces, experimenting with sequins and beads. As her enthusiasm grew, she decided to take courses in fashion design in Chicago, followed by textile classes at the famed Central Saint Martins, London. In 2016, she studied the craft of ‘crochet de Lunéville’ at Hand & Lock, winning first place at the annual embroidery competition. Transatlantic consecration of her talents came in 2018 when Neiman Marcus Beverly Hills commissioned three panels.

Early in her career, when Devi started travelling around the world, she discovered Paris where she fell in love with French artistry and style. She returned often, spending many a birthday on the Rive Gauche where she further immersed herself in France’s heritage and lifestyle. Many years later, she devoted a private study trip to visiting such legendary savoir-faire maisons as Lesage or Legeron.

It was also in Paris that she found the first gallery to exhibit her works in 2017, at Galerie Bettina on the rue Bonaparte, close to the Ecole des Beaux Arts. In 2019, she joined Mayaro, a gallery and showroom dedicated to living heritage and craftsmanship. In 2021, she consolidated her network with a second gallery in Paris : Odile Texier on the Palais Royal, as well as a renowned textile showroom in Los Angeles.

Devi’s works are featured in private collections in Paris, London, Florence, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington DC and Doha.