Timothy Horn, Tree of Heaven; Gorgonia 15, nickel-plated bronze, mirrored blown glass 84 x 90 x 9 inches
I’ve always been moved by the way artist Timothy Horn transforms a simple story, memory, or moment in time into something grand and otherworldly. When I put together an exhibition of his Tree of Heaven wall sculptures in 2010, I was tickled to learn that an inspiration for this series was a childhood memory: seven years old, riding in the back of the family car next to his grandmother, and staring up at the delicate brooch pinned to her blouse.
Decades later, this nostalgic feeling about a piece of family jewelry inspired an ethereal series of wall sculptures that Horn crafts from nickel-plated bronze and hand-blown glass. Timothy draws on other sources of inspiration for his Tree of Heaven series too: Ernst Haeckel’s scientific illustrations, Chinese botanicals, and Baroque ornamentation. With a background in metalsmithing, he creates an elaborate armature, sculpted and soldered in intricate detail like branches of a tree or tangles of spreading lichen. From the armature, delicate orbs of hand-blown glass dangle like pearl earrings and float like distant planets. The pieces feel familiar, like a grandmother’s brooch, and at the same time imposing in their majestic scale and surreal in their blending of organic and invented forms.
Timothy Horn, Tree of Heaven; Gorgonia
As part of our 2010 collaboration, Timothy completed a month-long residency and created a new sculpture for this series, at times in front of an audience during the museum’s open studio hours. On the last day of his residency, Timothy was working in the studio to assemble the finished piece when a group of visitors from a nearby senior center came by for a studio tour. I popped in to make sure everything was okay, concerned that the crowd might disrupt Timothy during a critical point in his process.
The group entered the gallery, noisy and excited, until their attention fell on the artist, who stood facing the wall with a tissue paper template mapping out how each intricate piece of the sculpture would finally fit together. Instantly perceiving the sanctity of the moment, the guests circled around, silent and enraptured. With the armature mounted to the wall, Timothy began to carefully hang each delicate globe, one at a time, hardly noticing the crowd that had assembled behind him. Time stood still until he placed the last of five globes in its place and we all spontaneously burst into applause, a fitting celebration of a visual as moving as the memory that inspired it.
Timothy Horn, Gorgonia 9 (Fan Dance) 2016, nickel-plated bronze, mirrored blown glass, 51 x 95 x 7 inches
Timothy Horn, Tree of Heaven, nickel-plated bronze, mirrored blown glass
Timothy Horn, Tree of Heaven, nickel-plated bronze, mirrored blown glass
Timothy Horn Tree of Heaven, nickel-plated bronze, mirrored blown glass
Timothy Horn
Born: 1964, Melbourne, Australia Lives and Works: Truro, Massachusetts, USA Education: Masters of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art; Bachelor Visual Art, Australian National University; Post-Graduate Diploma, Victorian College of the Arts; Bachelors of Fine Art, Victoria College Exhibitions (selected): 2025 - Shaping Life of Curiosity, Lisa Setter Gallery, Phoenix, AZ; 2018 - Tree of Heaven; Gorgonian, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia; 2008 - Bitter Suite, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; 2021 - Forces of Nature, Renwick Gallery, SAAM, Washington D.C.; 2007 - Andy and OZ: Parallel Visions, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; 2023 - Fairy Tales, QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australia Awards, Grants, and Artist Residencies (selected): 2010 - Lux Art Institute Residency, Encinitas, CA; 2010 - Pollock-Krasner Foundation Inc. Grant; 2005 - Fine Arts Work Center Winter Residency, Provincetown, MA; 1987 - Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Trust, VIC, Australia