A public closing reception will be held on Sunday, March 10th from 5:00 – 7:00pm
This reception will migrate between the Art Gallery located in the Woodland Building, and the outdoor amphitheater.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION:
Transfigurations is the latest in a collection of artworks spanning over a decade that reflects on the artist’s relationship with his father. It presents the artist’s foray into time-based media in the context of the entire series, which includes monumental and small scale sculpture, and printmaking. The works contemplate the changing nature of memory, grief, and the natural progression of life cycles through this experience between father and son stemming from a portrait sculpted by the artist of his father. Mirroring this relationship, the artworks bear the visible toll of tragedy and loss and the attempts to rebuild. Each iteration presents a unique stage of this evolution, which here can be appreciated in its entirety. The exhibition extends beyond the gallery walls to the stone amphitheater on campus grounds, where the remains of a storm ravaged sculpture is installed.
On view in the outdoor amphitheater is Abu, an 8’ tall acrylic sculpture, created in 2019, was commissioned by Philadelphia Sculptors as part of the Flow exhibit at the Philadelphia Seaport Museum’s boat marina. It lived in the Delaware river for weeks as part of the temporary exhibit until a storm tore it from its moorings and broke into pieces. This exhibit presents the work in its restored, yet damaged state for the first time since its destruction. In the wake of that event, and just at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Horn created Growth Rings as a National Endowment for the Arts artist-in-residence at the Brandywine Workshop and Archives. The residency paired Horn with master printer Alexis Nutini of Dos Tres Press to create a varying edition reduction print series based off Horn’s topographical construction methods. Transfigurations builds further on this collaborative practice, working with Chris Landau of LANDAU Design+Technology to combine the imagery from this print series into animated sequences that unfurl the nuances of the prints into evolving projections of form and color.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Miguel Antonio Horn is a visual artist from Philadelphia with Colombian and Venezuelan roots. He received a certificate in sculpture in 2006 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He creates large-format sculptures using digital and analog processes in a variety of media. His artworks engage public spaces with temporary and permanent installations that address power dynamics, conflict, loss, marginalization and deterioration. He founded El Cubo in the Parkside neighborhood of Philadelphia in 2019 as a space for experimental projects and programming. He is the father of two young children who he raises with his wife and community in South Philadelphia.