James Horan
James Horan was born in Dublin in 1980, and at the age of nineteen he moved to Cork where he attended the Crawford College of Art and Design. He graduated from art college in 2003 and has been working full-time as a sculptor ever since. As a sculptor, his favoured material is stone, and his sculptures are primarily carved in limestone and marble. As the effects of the economic downturn impacted on exhibition sales, he decided to return to university to study for a Masters Degree, and in 2010 he graduated from University College Cork with an M.A in Aesthetics and History of Art.
His sculptures are figurative and expressive in style with exaggerated characteristics such as their over size hands and feet, a feature that makes his artwork instantly recognisable. He describes his style as a physical representation of an emotional response, and he hopes that his art evokes an emotional reaction in the viewer, saying that
"It is not enough for me to create pretty sculptures, they need to affect people, to tap in to something intangible while also being a powerful physical presence. I have often had full conversations with people who were unconsciously stroking or rubbing a sculpture."
Humour also plays an important part in his work, both in the ideas inherent in his sculpture and in the actual physique of his figures. Specific themes in his work cover a broad spectrum of human emotions, behaviour and interactions, everything from the tenderness of a mother lovingly holding her child to the visceral energy of drunken men fighting in the street. He often gently mocks the figures he depicts, portraying them in poses that evoke classical sculpture, but at the same time he undermines this classical association by depicting them naked except for their underwear or decked out in super-hero capes. In this way he makes light of the monumental and commemorative element inherent in classical stone sculpture and pokes gentle fun at the frailties of the human condition.
"It is not enough for me to create pretty sculptures, they need to affect people, to tap in to something intangible while also being a powerful physical presence. I have often had full conversations with people who were unconsciously stroking or rubbing a sculpture."
Humour also plays an important part in his work, both in the ideas inherent in his sculpture and in the actual physique of his figures. Specific themes in his work cover a broad spectrum of human emotions, behaviour and interactions, everything from the tenderness of a mother lovingly holding her child to the visceral energy of drunken men fighting in the street. He often gently mocks the figures he depicts, portraying them in poses that evoke classical sculpture, but at the same time he undermines this classical association by depicting them naked except for their underwear or decked out in super-hero capes. In this way he makes light of the monumental and commemorative element inherent in classical stone sculpture and pokes gentle fun at the frailties of the human condition.
