Horace Farlowe was born in Robbins, North Carolina on February 26, 1933. From an early age, he could not contain his desire to draw. This excitement and motivation to create is a theme that followed him consistently throughout his life.

As a young adult, Horace Farlowe enrolled at Appalachian State University to explore and study the Arts. However, after only one short semester, he joined the US Marines and was deployed to Korea. When Farlowe returned stateside in 1957, he enrolled at NC State University, launching his artistic career.

In college, Horace Farlowe studied Architecture. A formative period for him, he once said “this introduction to art was responsible for many years of research trying to create a sculpture that is a reflection of me and not an obvious influence by others.“

Structures all over the world, from the Greek ruins of Paestum to Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, have influenced his painting style and sculpture. In 1961, Horace Farlowe graduated from NC State, but enrolled at Atlantic Christian College immediately after to pursue another Bachelor’s degree, this time in Painting. Again, shortly following that course of study, Farlowe enrolled in a Master’s program focusing on Sculpture at East Carolina University, graduating in 1964. From that point forward, Horace Farlowe was not only an active artist, but a teacher. Holding no less than 5 professorships over the course of his career, Farlowe’s biggest advice to his students was to “always keep working.”

According to Kathryn Farlowe, Horace’s daughter, he “lived and breathed art.” As his formal arts education path might suggest, his career alternated between long periods of sculpting and painting.

Jack Kehoe, a colleague and friend of Farlowe’s at UGA’s Lamar Dodd School of Art, once described him as “a consummate master at marble carving.”

Constantly pushing himself to work harder and break boundaries, Farlowe was moved by the flexibility of abstraction, and was influenced heavily by Constantin Brancusi’s experimentation. His sculptures, though often monumental in scale, have such an emotional quality to them that it would be impossible to deny his devotion to the craft.

Having exhibited internationally, Horace Farlowe’s towering yet refined sculptures have graced sites in Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Scotland, and domestically.

He was awarded many prestigious commissions for public sites, including but not limited to the NC Zoological Park in Asheboro, the Cumberland County Public Library in Fayetteville, Complex Esportiu Municpal in Barcelona, Elon University, and the Museum of Texas Tech University.

Unfortunately, Farlowe passed away from complications of a heart attack in 2006 at the age of 72. At the time, he was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art. Nonetheless, his legacy continues to thrive. Today, Horace Farlowe’s sculptures can be viewed in the permanent collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Greenville Museum of Art, and at university campuses throughout the United States.