Val Bertoia  (b. 1949) 

Val Bertoia was born in Santa Monica, California in 1949. In the 1950s, his family moved from California to Pennsylvania where he has lived and worked here ever since. In the1960s, Val studied Mechanical Engineering at Indiana Institute of Technology in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. In 1969, he was awarded Speaker of the Year at Indiana Tech. In 1971, he was released from Ft. Dix, NJ, from the US Army to return to Pennsylvania. He started working at the nearby farm, soon after, his father asked him to work at Bertoia Studio with him. Val worked with his father from 1972–1978.

Thee Sound-Sculpture environment which Harry continued for 10 years (1968–1978) is trademarked Sonambient. Harry and Val installed large-scale commissioned metal sculptures and Harry was amazed with Val’s level of precision and engineering abilities and often asked his advice. Late in the 1970s, Harry and Val made Bertoia Sound-Sculptures for distribution world-wide. During those 6-years, Val worked on his own projects including wind-electric systems as derivatives of kinetic sculpture models.

Harry was an intuitive engineer and Val’s wind-systems reaching over 90 ft. high were refined by Harry and became well-balanced with a US Patent. In 1978, continuing where Harry left off , with the encouragement of his mother, Brigitta Bertoia, Val continued the sculpture-business of his father’s legacy. Bertoia sculpture made after November 1978 started with B-01 and continues to be numbered.