“Virginia L. Montgomery’s immersive installations live at the intersection of Surrealism, philosophy, and science, while borrowing specific elements from the Texas ecosystem. Despite its eerie character, her lens-based work is the result of extensive research and meticulous creation. Through her practice, she conjures a culture of care and attention to others and elements, living or inanimate, that surround us.” – juror Frauke Josenhans, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Dora Maar Cultural Center
“Montgomery’s experiments in large-scale video installation, paraphyletic species preservation, and synesthetic sound straddle the edge where art meets science. Her processes reflect an openness to universal truths, making it a philosophical and spiritual inquiry situated in the Arts.” – juror Pia Singh, Independent Curator
Virginia L. Montgomery (b. 1986, Houston, TX) is a multimedia artist working across video, sound, and sculpture whose diverse artistic practice bridges surrealism, science, and mysticism via her own unique autistic lens. Growing up in Houston amid both scientific and artistic influences spanning from NASA to the Menil Collection, she developed a fascination with the cosmos, local Texas ecologies, and surrealism. Through her creation of sensory-friendly artworks featuring tactile sculptures, lush soundscapes, and her dreamlike videos (featuring her hand-raised Texas butterflies and Luna moths), Virginia L. Montgomery reframes the autistic experience as a unique way of engaging life’s unseen macro details while revealing the uncanny connections that unite us all.
Virginia L. Montgomery (b. 1986, Houston) is an award-winning multimedia artist working across video, performance, sound design, and sculpture. She received her MFA from Yale University and her BFA from The University of Texas at Austin. She is known for her surreal, synthesia-esque artworks which unite elements from mysticism, science, and her own neurodivergent world to facilitate narratives of metamorphosis and cosmic awe. Virginia L. Montgomery has had solo presentations with New Museum (NY), Midnight Moment at Times Square Arts (NY), Women & Their Work (TX), Lawndale Art Center (TX), Museum Folkwang (Germany), and Tate Film at Tate Modern (United Kingdom). She has exhibited in group exhibitions with Cantor Arts Center (CA), SculptureCenter (NY), Socrates Sculpture Park (NY), Hessel Museum (NY), Ballroom Marfa (TX), Moody Arts Center (TX), The Blaffer (TX), Contemporary Austin (TX), Blanton Museum of Art (TX), La Panacée-MoCo (France), Banff Centre (Canada), Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Denmark), and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Spain), among others.
