Robyn Horn
biography |
portfolio | artists listing
b. 1951, Fort Smith, Arkansas
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Arkansas Arts Center, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AK
Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Hendrix College, Conway, AR
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Museum of Art & Design, New York, NY
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
White House Craft Collection, Clinton Library, Little Rock, AR
Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2006 Wood Now, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO, traveling
Woodturning On The Edge, University of Idaho, Prichard Gallery,
Moscow, ID
2005 Collectors of Wood Art Forum, Philadelphia, PA
Soulful Tracks: Form & Surface/Robyn Horn & Carol Dalton,
Tercera Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
Artists' Reflections: Selections from the Permanent Collection,
Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA
Out of the Woods, DeVos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University,
Marquette, MI
2005 Masters of Wood Art III, Finer Things Gallery, Nashville, TN
2004 Out of the Woods, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Celebrating Nature, curated by Kevin Wallace, Los Angeles Craft & Folk
Art Museum, CA
47th Annual Delta Exhibition, Honorable Mention, Arkansas Arts Center,
Little Rock, AR
Robyn Horn & Bert Marsh Exhibition, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles,
CA
Solo Exhibition, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Union of Souls, solo exhibition, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Kanazawa World Craft Forum Invitational Exhibition, Kanazawa, Japan
Into the Woods, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Sculptural Forms in Wood, Solo Exhibition, Hendrix College,
Conway, AR
Selected Works, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Collectors of Wood Art Forum, Santa Fe, NM
25th Annual Contemporary Crafts, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZ
Art, New Orleans, LA
Branching Out: Contemporary Wood Turning in 2002, Ellipse Art Center,
Arlington, VA
James Renwick Alliance 20th Anniversary Benefit Auction, Washington, DC
Collectors' Choice, Collectors of Wood Art Forum, SOFA, Chicago, IL
2001-02 Wood Turning in North America since 1930,
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2000-02 Defining Craft I: Collecting for the New Millennium,
American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Davenport Museum of Art, Davenport, IA
2001 Southern Women of Influence, Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation,
Louisville, KY
Challenge VI: Roots - Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned
Objects, Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA
New Acquisitions, Arizona State University, Nelson Fine Arts Center,
Tempe, AZ
2001 Originals 2001, Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women
In the Arts, traveling exhibition
Turning Wood into Art: Masterworks from the Arthur & Jane Mason
Collection, Van Dyke Center, Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA
The Birthday Party, Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale, CA
1999-2001 Turned Wood - Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Defining Craft, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
American Woodturning: An Emerging Contemporary Art Form, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN
Horizons 2000, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT
Living with Form, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
The Fine Art of Wood: The Bohlen Collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Turning Wood into Art: The Jane & Arthur Mason Collection, Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Wood Works, Gallery I, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR
Collaborators, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999-2006 Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL &
New York, NY
1999 Collectors' Choice, Collectors of Wood Art Forum, SOFA, Chicago, IL Forms in Wood Exhibition, Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA
From Every Angle, Arkansas Arts Council, Little Rock, AR
Hendrix College Invitational Art Exhibition, Hendrix College,
Conway, AR
Images in Wood: Robyn Horn and Jack Slentz, The Arts & Science Center, Pine Bluff, AR
Revolution/Evolution I, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1998 In Collaboration With… University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR
Pathways '98, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
Collaborators, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1997-98 Expressions in Wood Masterworks from the Wornick Collection,
American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA and touring
1997 Bats and Bowls, Louisville Slugger Museum, Louisville, KY
Burton Creek Collection, Tifton Museum of Art and Heritage, Tifton, GA
Hendrix Invitational, Alumni Art, Hendrix College, Conway, AR
Moving Beyond Tradition, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AR
Turned Wood Now: Redefining the Lathe-Turned Object IV, Arizona State
University, Tempe, AZ
1997 Exhibition to Benefit C.E.R.F., del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1993-97 Turned Wood - Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2006 Woodwork, "Robyn Horn: Turner, Sculptor, Collector", No. 98, pp.22-28,
April
Art & Antiques, March, pp. 98,99
2005 Little Rock Soirée, Vol. 04, No.10, p.50, December
Real Living, p.18, Decemebr
2004 The Art of the South 1890-2003, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, J.Richard Gruber and David Houston, Scala Publishers, Ltd.
London
At Home In Arkansas, "At home with . . . Robyn Horn", May 2004,
Vol. 9, No. 4, p. 38.
2003 Union of Souls, Robyn Horn, Exhibition Catalogue, Arkansas Arts Center,
Little Rock, AR
Wood Art Today, Furniture, Vessels, Sculpture, Dona Z. Meilach, Schiffer
Publishing. pp. 186,205 ,222 ,234.
"Sacred Vessels, In Concert for One People", CLAL, The National Jewish
Center for Learning and Leadership, Yale University Art Gallery
Bulletin 2003, pp. 146-147.
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, April 13, Style Section, pp.1E and 3E, article
by Werner Trieschmann
Log Cabin Democrat, November 13, Entertainment Guide, pp. 1, 10 and
11, article by Carol Rolf
2002 Scratching The Surface, Guild Publishing, by Michael Hosaluk
American Style, "Wooed by Wood", Winter 2002-2003, P.66-73.
2001 Wood Turning in North America Since 1930, Wood Turning Center and
Yale University
Challenge VI- Roots: Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned
Objects, Wood Turning Center
2000 Defining Craft, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Living with Form, The Horn Collection of Contemporary Crafts, Arkansas
Arts Center
Turning Wood into Art, The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection, Mint
Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
The Fine Art of Wood at the Millennium, Detroit Institute of Arts
2000 American Craft, "Collecting A Life: John and Robyn Horn", Dec.
2000/Jan. 2001, pp. 46-53.
Beautiful Things, Guild Publishing, Madison, Wisconsin
Turning Points, Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA, "To Conserve or
Not to Conserve", p. 38.
American Woodturner, Journal of the American Association of
Woodturners, Shoreview, MN
"Robyn Horn, Artist, Turners' Friend Honored by AAW", American
Woodturner, p. 14-16.
Craft Arts International, Sydney, Australia No. 48, "Merging Geometry
with Nature", p. 41-45
1999 Contemporary Turned Wood, by Leier, Peters, Wallace, Guild Publishing
1998 New York Times, Wornick Collection, American Craft Museum, Feb. 6,
New York, NY
1997 Enter the World of Lathe-Turned Objects, Woodturning Center
Catalogue
Moving Beyond Tradition: A Turned-Wood Invitational, Decorative Arts
Museum Little Rock, Arkansas
Turned Wood Now: Redefining the Lathe-Turned Object IV, Arizona
State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona
Expressions In Wood- Wornick Collection, Oakland Museum of Art,
Oakland, CA
American Craft- February/March- "Expressions In Wood", Wornick
Collection
1996 Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Regional Craft Biennial, Decorative Arts
Museum
The Art of the Lathe- Patrick Spielman
Regional Craft Biennial Catalogue, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Woodturning, December, 1996 - Presidential Collection
1995 The White House Collection of American Crafts
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
It took 32 Years for me to realize that wood was the material I should be working with. Maybe it is immediacy that appeals to me with its half-hearted resistance to being changed, or maybe it is the feedback that I receive while working with this unique material. It has taken me another 20 years for my work to develop to the point where I feel I have grasped the physical and emotional aspects of wood. Barbara Hepworth has been an inspiration to me, expressing her concept of "truth to material" referring to the special relationship between the hand of the artist and his or her material. Louise Nevelson spoke of the "livingness" of wood and how she felt that by using it, she was giving it another life. The directness of working with wood is a key aspect of the creative process for me.
The inherent qualities and physical strength of wood relate directly to the visual context I have chosen in my work. The forms I make in wood reflect the shapes in which stones are found. There is solidity to stones, a sense of monumental strength and simplicity to them that intrigues me. Geodes, millstones, stepping-stones and slipping stones are the shapes I have emulated.
Cultivating a series in each of these areas has allowed me to examine and evaluate aspects of these forms, delving into the contrasting forces of geometry and nature. I am always amazed at the ease, with which nature develops into shapes and forms, creating effects of light and shadow, with a strong emphasis on visual grace, and a sense of structural strength and presence.
My latest series, the slipping Stones, has developed from two different influences. The first was a stone I found that contained several fissures and fractures, seemingly on the verge of breaking apart, when in fact it was intact and solid. The second was the painting by Marcel Du Champ titled "Nude Descending A Staircase" in which the cubist suggestion of a figure and its movement was very intriguing with its repetition of form and graceful glide downward. In this series, I am attempting to convey the concept of a cluster of stones with a distinct lack of balance, and a sense of impending collapse. There is also the appearance of assemblage when in fact each of these works is carved from a solid piece of wood, thus another illusion.
In my view, when contemplating art, sculpture has the advantage of being an entity. The physical presence it possesses allows the viewer to connect within in a very tangible way. Another major influence on my work, Isamu Noguchi, talked about the participation of the spectator, how the sculptural form in space moves as the viewer moves, selecting the most desired placement of the work to extract the strongest visceral response. Form is my primary concern, but surface texture is also an essential aspect of my work, giving the viewer's eye more depth to relate to. Negative spaces are an important ingredient, bringing the viewer in and through the work, connecting one side to the other. The combination of these components is the essential key to making a sculpture successful.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Arkansas Arts Center, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AK
Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Hendrix College, Conway, AR
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL
Museum of Art & Design, New York, NY
Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
White House Craft Collection, Clinton Library, Little Rock, AR
Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2006 Wood Now, Craft Alliance, St. Louis, MO, traveling
Woodturning On The Edge, University of Idaho, Prichard Gallery,
Moscow, ID
2005 Collectors of Wood Art Forum, Philadelphia, PA
Soulful Tracks: Form & Surface/Robyn Horn & Carol Dalton,
Tercera Gallery, Palo Alto, CA
Artists' Reflections: Selections from the Permanent Collection,
Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA
Out of the Woods, DeVos Art Museum, Northern Michigan University,
Marquette, MI
2005 Masters of Wood Art III, Finer Things Gallery, Nashville, TN
2004 Out of the Woods, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Celebrating Nature, curated by Kevin Wallace, Los Angeles Craft & Folk
Art Museum, CA
47th Annual Delta Exhibition, Honorable Mention, Arkansas Arts Center,
Little Rock, AR
Robyn Horn & Bert Marsh Exhibition, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles,
CA
Solo Exhibition, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2003 Union of Souls, solo exhibition, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Kanazawa World Craft Forum Invitational Exhibition, Kanazawa, Japan
Into the Woods, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Sculptural Forms in Wood, Solo Exhibition, Hendrix College,
Conway, AR
Selected Works, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Collectors of Wood Art Forum, Santa Fe, NM
25th Annual Contemporary Crafts, Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, AZ
Art, New Orleans, LA
Branching Out: Contemporary Wood Turning in 2002, Ellipse Art Center,
Arlington, VA
James Renwick Alliance 20th Anniversary Benefit Auction, Washington, DC
Collectors' Choice, Collectors of Wood Art Forum, SOFA, Chicago, IL
2001-02 Wood Turning in North America since 1930,
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2000-02 Defining Craft I: Collecting for the New Millennium,
American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Davenport Museum of Art, Davenport, IA
2001 Southern Women of Influence, Kentucky Art and Craft Foundation,
Louisville, KY
Challenge VI: Roots - Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned
Objects, Berman Museum of Art, Ursinus College, Collegeville, PA
New Acquisitions, Arizona State University, Nelson Fine Arts Center,
Tempe, AZ
2001 Originals 2001, Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women
In the Arts, traveling exhibition
Turning Wood into Art: Masterworks from the Arthur & Jane Mason
Collection, Van Dyke Center, Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA
The Birthday Party, Brand Library and Art Center, Glendale, CA
1999-2001 Turned Wood - Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Defining Craft, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
American Woodturning: An Emerging Contemporary Art Form, Rochester Art Center, Rochester, MN
Horizons 2000, Brookfield Craft Center, Brookfield, CT
Living with Form, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
The Fine Art of Wood: The Bohlen Collection, The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
Turning Wood into Art: The Jane & Arthur Mason Collection, Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
Wood Works, Gallery I, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR
Collaborators, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1999-2006 Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art Exposition, Chicago, IL &
New York, NY
1999 Collectors' Choice, Collectors of Wood Art Forum, SOFA, Chicago, IL Forms in Wood Exhibition, Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston, MA
From Every Angle, Arkansas Arts Council, Little Rock, AR
Hendrix College Invitational Art Exhibition, Hendrix College,
Conway, AR
Images in Wood: Robyn Horn and Jack Slentz, The Arts & Science Center, Pine Bluff, AR
Revolution/Evolution I, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1998 In Collaboration With… University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR
Pathways '98, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH
Collaborators, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1997-98 Expressions in Wood Masterworks from the Wornick Collection,
American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA and touring
1997 Bats and Bowls, Louisville Slugger Museum, Louisville, KY
Burton Creek Collection, Tifton Museum of Art and Heritage, Tifton, GA
Hendrix Invitational, Alumni Art, Hendrix College, Conway, AR
Moving Beyond Tradition, Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock, AR
Turned Wood Now: Redefining the Lathe-Turned Object IV, Arizona State
University, Tempe, AZ
1997 Exhibition to Benefit C.E.R.F., del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1993-97 Turned Wood - Small Treasures, del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2006 Woodwork, "Robyn Horn: Turner, Sculptor, Collector", No. 98, pp.22-28,
April
Art & Antiques, March, pp. 98,99
2005 Little Rock Soirée, Vol. 04, No.10, p.50, December
Real Living, p.18, Decemebr
2004 The Art of the South 1890-2003, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, J.Richard Gruber and David Houston, Scala Publishers, Ltd.
London
At Home In Arkansas, "At home with . . . Robyn Horn", May 2004,
Vol. 9, No. 4, p. 38.
2003 Union of Souls, Robyn Horn, Exhibition Catalogue, Arkansas Arts Center,
Little Rock, AR
Wood Art Today, Furniture, Vessels, Sculpture, Dona Z. Meilach, Schiffer
Publishing. pp. 186,205 ,222 ,234.
"Sacred Vessels, In Concert for One People", CLAL, The National Jewish
Center for Learning and Leadership, Yale University Art Gallery
Bulletin 2003, pp. 146-147.
Arkansas Democrat Gazette, April 13, Style Section, pp.1E and 3E, article
by Werner Trieschmann
Log Cabin Democrat, November 13, Entertainment Guide, pp. 1, 10 and
11, article by Carol Rolf
2002 Scratching The Surface, Guild Publishing, by Michael Hosaluk
American Style, "Wooed by Wood", Winter 2002-2003, P.66-73.
2001 Wood Turning in North America Since 1930, Wood Turning Center and
Yale University
Challenge VI- Roots: Insights & Inspirations in Contemporary Turned
Objects, Wood Turning Center
2000 Defining Craft, American Craft Museum, New York, NY
Living with Form, The Horn Collection of Contemporary Crafts, Arkansas
Arts Center
Turning Wood into Art, The Jane and Arthur Mason Collection, Mint
Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
The Fine Art of Wood at the Millennium, Detroit Institute of Arts
2000 American Craft, "Collecting A Life: John and Robyn Horn", Dec.
2000/Jan. 2001, pp. 46-53.
Beautiful Things, Guild Publishing, Madison, Wisconsin
Turning Points, Wood Turning Center, Philadelphia, PA, "To Conserve or
Not to Conserve", p. 38.
American Woodturner, Journal of the American Association of
Woodturners, Shoreview, MN
"Robyn Horn, Artist, Turners' Friend Honored by AAW", American
Woodturner, p. 14-16.
Craft Arts International, Sydney, Australia No. 48, "Merging Geometry
with Nature", p. 41-45
1999 Contemporary Turned Wood, by Leier, Peters, Wallace, Guild Publishing
1998 New York Times, Wornick Collection, American Craft Museum, Feb. 6,
New York, NY
1997 Enter the World of Lathe-Turned Objects, Woodturning Center
Catalogue
Moving Beyond Tradition: A Turned-Wood Invitational, Decorative Arts
Museum Little Rock, Arkansas
Turned Wood Now: Redefining the Lathe-Turned Object IV, Arizona
State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona
Expressions In Wood- Wornick Collection, Oakland Museum of Art,
Oakland, CA
American Craft- February/March- "Expressions In Wood", Wornick
Collection
1996 Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Regional Craft Biennial, Decorative Arts
Museum
The Art of the Lathe- Patrick Spielman
Regional Craft Biennial Catalogue, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Woodturning, December, 1996 - Presidential Collection
1995 The White House Collection of American Crafts
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
It took 32 Years for me to realize that wood was the material I should be working with. Maybe it is immediacy that appeals to me with its half-hearted resistance to being changed, or maybe it is the feedback that I receive while working with this unique material. It has taken me another 20 years for my work to develop to the point where I feel I have grasped the physical and emotional aspects of wood. Barbara Hepworth has been an inspiration to me, expressing her concept of "truth to material" referring to the special relationship between the hand of the artist and his or her material. Louise Nevelson spoke of the "livingness" of wood and how she felt that by using it, she was giving it another life. The directness of working with wood is a key aspect of the creative process for me.
The inherent qualities and physical strength of wood relate directly to the visual context I have chosen in my work. The forms I make in wood reflect the shapes in which stones are found. There is solidity to stones, a sense of monumental strength and simplicity to them that intrigues me. Geodes, millstones, stepping-stones and slipping stones are the shapes I have emulated.
Cultivating a series in each of these areas has allowed me to examine and evaluate aspects of these forms, delving into the contrasting forces of geometry and nature. I am always amazed at the ease, with which nature develops into shapes and forms, creating effects of light and shadow, with a strong emphasis on visual grace, and a sense of structural strength and presence.
My latest series, the slipping Stones, has developed from two different influences. The first was a stone I found that contained several fissures and fractures, seemingly on the verge of breaking apart, when in fact it was intact and solid. The second was the painting by Marcel Du Champ titled "Nude Descending A Staircase" in which the cubist suggestion of a figure and its movement was very intriguing with its repetition of form and graceful glide downward. In this series, I am attempting to convey the concept of a cluster of stones with a distinct lack of balance, and a sense of impending collapse. There is also the appearance of assemblage when in fact each of these works is carved from a solid piece of wood, thus another illusion.
In my view, when contemplating art, sculpture has the advantage of being an entity. The physical presence it possesses allows the viewer to connect within in a very tangible way. Another major influence on my work, Isamu Noguchi, talked about the participation of the spectator, how the sculptural form in space moves as the viewer moves, selecting the most desired placement of the work to extract the strongest visceral response. Form is my primary concern, but surface texture is also an essential aspect of my work, giving the viewer's eye more depth to relate to. Negative spaces are an important ingredient, bringing the viewer in and through the work, connecting one side to the other. The combination of these components is the essential key to making a sculpture successful.