Virginia King

Virginia King (born 1946) is a New Zealand sculptor. She sculpts in wood, metal and stone and is influenced by the natural environment and the forms of leaves, trees, shells, ferns and feathers. King's works can be seen in locations in New Zealand and Australia.

Early life and education King was born in 1946 in Kawakawa and attended primary schools in Ōhaeawai, Kerikeri and Paihia and secondary school at Sacred Heart College in Lower Hutt. She studied at the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design in 1963 and the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland from 1964 to 1965.

Career In her early career King worked in painting, print-making and sculpture, and as a fashion designer after attending the Chelsea Art School. The natural environment and its preservation is the motivation for her work. Leaves and seedpods, often in symbolic form, have been frequent forms used in her sculptures. The work "draws formal parallels with animal vertebrae, an insect wing, a feather, a fern, a leaf". To mark the millennium King and Chris Thom collaborated to build Aramaramara, the Mission Bay Millennium Footbridge in Auckland. She created Antarctic Heart, 21 sculptures of macrocarpa and totara with reflective and luminous surfaces hanging from strings which swivelled in a darkened gallery. Reed Vessel (2004), a canoe made of 300 pieces of stainless steel, stands in the Docklands in Melbourne. She has also exhibited at the Tourism New Zealand garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. Sliver (2007), a stainless steel 'doughnut' shape, was installed in Newmarket, Auckland in 2008. The David Lange Memorial (2008) in Mason Avenue, Ōtāhuhu is made from stainless steel, steel and timber poles, engraved basalt and landform earthworks. In creating the work King involved the community and Lange's family so that the work (a suspended vessel and 12 columns) includes words from Lange's speeches and acknowledges the use of the narrow Auckland isthmus as a portage used by Māori. It was unveiled by the governor general Sir Anand Satyanand in 2008. Hinaki Guardian (2013) is the form of an eel trap, made of stainless steel and situated in a hole cut into the wharf at Hobsonville part of the Didsbury Art Trail.

Wakatipu Vessel (2015) a stainless steel waka (canoe) in St Omer Park, Queenstown has been regularly 'vandalised' by having traffic cones thrown into it.

King's works can be found at the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail, Snells Beach, north of Auckland

Gallery

Personal life King is married to architect Michael King and they have three children.

Publications Books King V. (1995). Raft (River Styx) (2nd ed.). V. King. OCLC 154176112

Videos King, Virginia & Chris Cree Brown (2001). Antarctic heart : Virginia King Artists to Antarctica programme 1999-2000. OCLC 155719195 Art video by King of electron microscope images, sculptures and the Antarctic landscape with music by Cree Brown.