P.P.O.W is pleased to present Supernatural, a solo exhibition by Timothy Horn.
As the title suggests, Horn’s aim is to create forms that exist outside the laws of physics and beyond the realm of nature. The idea is to evoke an 18th-century Wunderkabinett—cabinet of curiosities—for today’s environment under duress. It’s Horn’s comment on humankind’s exploitation of natural beauty for its own vanity.

Two primary sources inspire these works: 17th-century Baroque jewelry patterns by Gilles Legaré, court jeweler to Louis XIV; and 19th-century studies of environmentally sensitive organisms such as lichen, coral, and seaweed, found in zoologist Ernst Haeckel’s book Art Forms in Nature. Creating an aesthetic conversation between these two very different artists enables Horn to explore the tension between the organic and artificial, the minuscule and monumental, and the masculine and feminine.

These works are fabricated in nickel-plated bronze and ornamented with either massive mirrored, blown-glass pearls or cast lead crystal forms. Horn employs techniques and materials that originate with 18th-century costume jewelry, but he deploys on a much larger scale. The results are wall-sized sculptures that resemble pieces of exquisitely wrought, Baroque jewelry.

Timothy Horn was born in Melbourne, Australia. He studied Sculpture at the Victorian College of the Arts and Glass at the Australian National University. In 2002 he received a Samstag Scholarship and moved to the U.S., where he completed his graduate work at Massachusetts College of Art. Horn's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the de Young Museum, San Francisco; SJ ICA, San Jose; and Lux Art Institute, Encinitas. His work has also been featured in major group exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; GoMA, Brisbane; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.