PASTINE  PROJECTS

Archana Horsting's practice revolves around her innovative use of black oil stick, a medium through which she masterfully explores the interplay of texture, form, and process. In her work, Horsting deftly navigates the tensions between nature and artificiality, realism and abstraction, prompting both intellectual and sensory contemplation. Her art embodies a formal purity that is both subtle and monumental, conjuring a presence that transcends its individual elements. It is in this harmonious tension that the work asserts its profound significance, quietly commanding a sense of the sublime.

Horsting’s pared-down aesthetic evokes Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notion of language as suggestive yet imprecise. Archana points to Wittgenstein who proposed that, “A word doesn’t have a precise definition, but that doesn’t mean it’s not illuminating. It’s like a light. It doesn’t have a firm boundary, but it still gives us the light that we need.” (Richard Whittaker, “Conversation with Archana Horsing, An Artist’s Journey,” Works and Conversation, Journal No. 28, p. 2. [2014]). In Horsting’s work, light serves as a potent metaphor, especially in the striking interplay between black oil stick and raw paper. This contrast situates her art in a liminal zone—neither fixed nor fully defined—where boundaries blur and meanings elude easy grasp. Such a space resists straightforward interpretation, inviting viewers into a realm of contemplative ambiguity where the mind is free to wander and dream.

Horsting’s creative inclinations were nurtured from a young age as she spent much of her childhood watching her mother, Ruth Horsting, weld sculpture in their Chicago basement. Later, when her mother took a teaching position in the art department at Davis, Archana had the opportunity to interact with prominent artists. She pursued her early studies at U.C. Santa Cruz and the University of Padova in Italy. As a young adult, Horsting embraced a rich and varied artistic journey, exploring fields from theater to literature and philosophy. She studied at L'Academia di Belle Arti di Venezia before working with the Italian sculptor Carlo Schiavon. Her post-graduate education included independent study with Krishna Reddy and Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17 in Paris, and later with Akira Kurasaki from Japan and Sandro Martini from Italy.

Horsting’s work has been exhibited and collected both nationally and internationally. As a founding partner and director of Kala Art Institute for four decades, she earned the Arts Leadership Award from Alameda County in 2012 for her service to the artistic community and the Benjamin Ide Wheeler Award from the Berkeley Community Fund in 2015. Her contributions extend to roles as a visiting artist at U.C. Santa Cruz and Mills College, a site visitor for the National Endowment for the Arts, and a panelist for the California Arts Council.