My sculpture depicts contemporary animal imagery, with the animals often acting as alter-egos, self-images or surrogates for humanity.  Like Aesop’s characters, they can be merciful replacements for overwhelming human experience, only to become dispassionate observers of mankind’s folly.  These beasts are clearly anthropomorphic, sometimes in expression, sometimes in environment, sometimes just in the emotions that they share with the human race.  In my work, I use animal images as a method for obliquely exploring the human condition in a way that illuminates the intimate connection between the human and animal kingdoms.

For many years, my sculpture concentrated almost exclusively on horses, but new animals have appeared in my recent work.  The horse continues to be the central image; it’s the animal that is the most biographical and represents me most.  My other creatures represent different aspects of the world; the crows are skeptical outsiders and shrewd observers of the human condition, while the bats are icons of mystery.  Living lives parallel to our own, animals are fellow travelers, existing almost invisibly both inside and outside of mankind’s domain.  The juxtaposition of animals with man-made artifacts emphasizes their shared traits with humanity.  My sculptures often refer to children’s books that show animals in cozy human environments, but they can also suggest the animal’s unsettling intrusion into our world, taking over as if humans have disappeared.  This invasion suggests a combination of horror movie and bedtime story-- part Hitchcock, part Disney.

Most of my sculptures are made from ordinary, commonplace materials, some as humble as paper towels.  I’m interested in unexpected media, substances that may not be luxurious or traditionally used in sculpture, but have the surprising ability to evoke a living creature.

Recent Works:
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Biography

Norfolk native Virginia Van Horn is a longtime member of the Hampton Roads art community and has an extensive exhibition record both in the region and in the Southeastern U.S.

She received her BFA in printmaking from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and her MFA in sculpture from the Visual Studies Program of Old Dominion and Norfolk State Universities.  She also studied and exhibited in Urbino, Italy as part of a program sponsored by New York’s School of Visual Arts.

Virginia currently teaches at Old Dominion University, Norfolk State University and the Governor’s School for the Arts.  Inspired by her childhood as a champion rider, she is fascinated by animal imagery, especially horses.  Her most recent work branches out from equine images to explore new and different combinations of animals, both wild and domestic.

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