Molly Valentine Dierks

  • Assistant Teaching Professor
  • FOUNDATIONS

Through immersive installations that draw equally from nature and technology, interdisciplinary artist & designer Molly Valentine Dierks explores evolving landscapes of intimacy, distance, and connection.

Dierks studied Psychology at Dartmouth College (BA, Honors); Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University (Post-Baccalaureate, Continuing Studies); and Art + Design, gender studies, disability theory, and postmodernism at the University of Michigan (MFA). Dierks has participated in exhibitions nationally (Dallas, Detroit, LA) and internationally (Russia, South Korea); including exhibitions at the University of Michigan Museum of Modern Art, Kunsthalle Detroit Museum of Contemporary Art, and 500X Gallery in Dallas, Texas (among others). Select works have been featured in the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit’s 'Post Industrial Complex', CICA Museum’s Art Yellow Book, Designboom, Opumo Fashion Magazine, Voyage Dallas, The Jealous Curator, Peripheral Visions Arts, and more. Dierks’ public installations (Detroit, Minnesota, Dallas, Fort Worth) rely on the visual language of signs and mass-production to meditate on transitional states like vulnerability, evolution, or letting go. Through ongoing research and residencies in Beijing, Tokyo, and Gyeonggi-do, and the rural landscapes of the US, Iceland, and Finland, she explores different landscapes (material, psychological, ecological), translating the poetry of her experiences through her work.  

Molly Valentine Dierks is a deeply enthusiastic educator and mentor who employs her passion for design through community initiatives, classroom relationships, and curriculum innovation.