I am a sculptor and installation artist. I love creating a three dimensional art experience that is visceral and immediate.
About the Artist
Virginia Sperry grew up in a house full of art, music, dance and theater. A bachelor’s degree in theater, a year dancing at the Martha Graham School in NYC and a master’s degree in dance therapy preceded Virginia’s visual arts career. Her first foray into sculpture started with polymer clay in 1990. In 2003 Virginia learned to weld in a metal fabrication class at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Virginia began to create amazingly life-like steel animals. Her public installations can be seen across the country. After attending a bio-art residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2015, Virginia began to work on site-specific installations made form yarn, paper, wood and steel. These installations were an expression of her new and renewed knowledge about the realities of racism and what it means to be white in America. Virginia lives and works on a six-acre farm outside of Baltimore, MD with her husband, one big dog and two grumpy old cats. Many of her larger sculptures are scattered around her property, which is open to the community for public viewing by appointment.Artist's Statement
I am passionate about exploring different materials. I learn ways to manipulate, build and push the limits of a medium. My artistic pathway has been unorthodox, playing with polymer clay led to welding steel sculptures which shared my attention with photographing rust. Now fiber installations and paper sculptures take up most of my creative attention. However, I will use whatever material is needed to best express my ideas and emotions. I have spent the last four years encountering new and renewed knowledge about the realities of racism and what it means to be white in America. With my recent body of work I am looking beyond my initial feelings of guilt and shame in order to come to terms with my role in the ongoing inequities that are rooted in the founding of this country. My goal is for my work to promote a thoughtful dialogue about these issues that will lead to sustained positive change. I am aware that as a white woman, I walk a fine line in talking about race. There are not a lot of examples to follow. But I feel strongly that any dialogue about the subject is better than no dialogue.Featured Work
Photos






Featured Work: Photos
Dementia
steel
2018
Hanging steel sculpture about what happens when your life ends with dementia.
Un/Familiar Territory
Yarn, paper, wood, steel, pipe insulation
2022
Un/Familiar Territory is a site-specific, experiential installation that continues my personal exploration into the complexities of race in America. Using yarn, paper, wood and steel, this installation invites the viewer to physically enter the space between two very different racial realities. Installed in the Hodson Gallery at Hood College in Frederick, MD in 2022
Remnants
Wood, masonry nails, steel
2022
A conceptual sculpture of the timeline of slavery in the United States. Part of "missing Pieces at Noma Gallery in Frederick, MD, 2022
For Sale
$1,900.00
Contact the artist to purchase this piece
Discovery
Paper, wood, glue
2021
A paper collage depicting the moment I learned about the practice of redlining.
Following the Path
Paper, wood, glue
2022
A paper collage depicting the moment that I started to comprehend the complexities of racism in America.
For Sale
$250.00
Contact the artist to purchase this piece
Remnants, detail
Wood, masonry nails, steel
2022
The beginning of the timeline of slavery in America
Videos
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Filament: A site Specific Art Installation
Filament is an enormous wall of yarn. Comprised of hundreds of individual strands of novelty yarn and hung from giant knitting needles, the site-specific installation falls from a 9-foot ceiling and transforms an ordinary space into a place of wonder. This sculpture was most recently hung at NOMA Gallery in Frederick, Maryland. The video was filmed there by the artist and edited by Stacy McKenzie (www.opticalnorth.com)Medium: yarn, wood, photographyYear: 2020Details: site specific, video runs 2 minutes and 33 seconds -
Un/Familiar Territory
A video compilation of “Un/Familiar Territory”, a site-specific, experiential installation by Maryland-based artist Virginia Sperry shown in the Hodson Gallery at Hood College in Frederick MD in August/September 2022.
"This exhibit continues my personal exploration into the complexities of race in America. Using yarn, paper and steel, I created an opportunity for the viewer to physically enter the space between two separate worlds. This show delved into the different emotional realities of living in America based solely on skin color, as well as the historical beginnings of this separation and how it continues to this day."
This art installation was made possible with the support of the Hood College Humanities Council and Arts Department. I am incredibly grateful for this support.
Thanks to Renz Balagtas for editing this video.Medium: Yarn, paper, wood, steel, pipe insulationYear: 2022Details: Two minutes run time