In the Press
Timothy Horn Arrives as First Resident Artist of Lux Art Institute's 2010/2011 Season
ENCINITAS, CA — (July 19, 2010) — Lux Art Institute, San Diego's first LEED certified interactive art destination, will welcome Australian-born sculptor Timothy Horn as the first artist-in-residence of the 2010/2011 Season.
With a fondness for using unusual materials – such as blown-glass, rubber, and rock sugar – Horn is known for creating large-scale sculptures that challenge viewers to find the meeting point between the natural and constructed worlds. Inspired by decorative arts and engravings from European baroque and rococo, as well as by 19th century studies of organic forms such as lichen, coral and seaweed, Horn's work conveys fantasy and ornament but is underpinned by craftsmanship and concept.
From September 9 to October 9, the artist will be living at Lux as he constructs a sculpture of nickel-plated bronze and blown glass for his "Tree of Heaven" series. Visitors can "see art happen" while he is in studio and view his exhibit, featuring numerous examples of large-scale, multi-media sculpture through October 30, 2010.
"The delicacy and intricacy of Tim's fobs that will hang like Victorian jewelry on our walls belie their scale," said Lux Director Reesey Shaw. "From the oversize works in the ‘Tree of Heaven' series to the full-size carriage made of crystallized rock sugar, these are ornate icons with heft and muscle. They will leave us charmed by their details and overpowered by their enormity."
For his bejeweled wall pieces, Horn melds the organic and the artificial into a delicate silhouette by drafting a complex pattern and using grafted imagery of natural forms. A tree-like structure is constructed in wax and then cast in bronze and nickel-plated. Lustrous, large pearls fabricated from mirrored blown glass are the final baroque touch.
Other examples of Horn's oeuvre to be displayed at Lux are his 18th-century wall sconces made of transparent rubber, as well as a Cinderella-like carriage and a 300-pound chandelier both encrusted in honey-colored, crystallized rock sugar. The sugar-gilded chandelier and carriage were featured in an exhibit at the de Young Museum in San Francisco that referenced the rags-to-riches life of Alma Spreckels, widow of millionaire sugar baron Adolph Spreckels, who was brother of real estate magnate John D. Spreckels, one of San Diego's founding entrepreneurs.
A graduate of Victorian College of the Arts and Australian National University, Horn received his MFA from Massachusetts College of Art. His work has been featured in exhibitions at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Museum of Arts & Design and at the Armory Art Show in New York, Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, and the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. He has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and LEF New England. Residencies include the British Academy in Rome, Yaddo in upstate New York, the Fine Art Works Center in Provincetown and RAIR in New Mexico.
Lux Art Institute, located in Encinitas, Calif., is redefining the museum experience with the region’s only artist-in-residence program that invites artists to live and work on site, while producing a commissioned work of art – start to finish. This one-of-a-kind institution welcomes visitors to not only “see art,” but also to “see art happen.”
Throughout each year, Lux hosts several significant regional, national and international artists who participate in its residency program. Visitors from across the country are able to participate in exclusive liaison-led tours, providing intimate access to the artist-in-residence, the artist’s exhibition and the museum’s permanent collection of indoor and outdoor art. Lux also offers a wide range of innovative programming for all ages.
The recipient of the San Diego Architectural Foundation’s top design award, the Grand Orchid, and the first art museum in California awarded LEED certification for new construction, Lux is located alongside one of Southern California’s few remaining coastal wetlands. The five-acre site also overlooks the San Elijo Lagoon and is surrounded by a wildlife preserve that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.
Through its Phase II Capital Campaign, Lux plans to add more than 25,000 square feet of galleries and classrooms. Once completed, the new building will also feature a hilltop plaza and a series of gardens climbing between the galleries and the Artist Pavilion.
Lux Art Institute is located at 1550 South El Camino Real in Encinitas, Calif. Hours are Thursday and Friday, 1 to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and cost is $10 for two visits. For more information about donations, memberships, volunteer opportunities and more, visit http://www.luxartinstitute.org or call 760-436-6611.