Valerie Carmet is a French-American contemporary Pop Art assemblage artist based between New York and Miami. After earning an MBA in international policy and spending a decade working in New York’s fashion industry, Carmet returned to her first passion—art—studying multiple disciplines before specializing in mosaic in Italy. She later worked as a full-time artist at Anandamali Studio in Tribeca, where she refined her expertise in mosaic and mixed media while teaching and executing large-scale commissions.
Carmet is best known for her Pop Art series, “ToyBox: Not Intended for Small Children,” an ongoing body of work that transforms discarded and recycled toys into bold, three-dimensional assemblages. Rooted in the visual language of Pop Art, her work repurposes familiar childhood objects—plastic figurines, games, and mass-produced toys—placing them within precisely cut wooden silhouettes that function as both frame and constraint. While visually playful and seductive, her works explore complex themes including memory, identity, gender equality, environmental sustainability, consumer culture, violence, mental health, and social conditioning. The tension between innocence and meaning is central to her practice.
Works from the “ToyBox” series have been exhibited internationally at major art fairs and exhibitions, particularly during Miami Art Week, and are held in private collections worldwide. Since 2015, her practice has expanded into increasingly complex three-dimensional and mixed-media works addressing pressing social issues, including war, racism, sexual violence, and equality.
