Validating Properties with System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Validator

I have my Entity setup with Data Annotation validation attributes and i am trying to validate it using the static Validator class but i am getting different exceptions, isn't this the right way to do it:

string _ValidateProperty(object instance, string propertyName)
        {
            var validationContext = new ValidationContext(instance, null, null);
            validationContext.MemberName = propertyName;
            var validationResults = new List<ValidationResult>();
            var isValid = Validator.TryValidateProperty(instance, validationContext, validationResults);
            if (isValid)
                return string.Empty;
            return validationResults.FirstOrDefault<ValidationResult>().ErrorMessage;
        }