Victoria Horkan

Victoria Horkan is a contemporary British painter based in Yorkshire, known for large-scale impasto oil paintings that translate movement, texture, and the forces of nature into richly layered surfaces, represented by Eclectic Gallery in Fitzrovia, London. She grew up in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and studied at Bretton Hall College, an arts-focused institution set within the grounds of what is now the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where the presence of monumental sculpture in the surrounding landscape was a formative part of her training. She went on to complete an MA in textile design at the University of Huddersfield, where her tutors encouraged her, in the tradition of Degas, to observe dancers at the local dance hall. Captivated by the immediacy of bodies in motion, she moved progressively towards paint as her primary medium. The textile background left a lasting mark: her canvases carry a strong sense of surface, physicality, and repetition that owes as much to fabric as to painting.

Horkan works primarily in oil on canvas, often incorporating mixed media including plaster and textural additives to build surfaces that are almost sculptural in quality. Her original oil paintings typically measure 100 cm x 100 cm and above, with many works substantially larger. She has described the process in physical terms, telling Artists and Illustrators in 2012: “I love applying thick undiluted oils on the canvas, scraping it away, and moving it around. It is almost a sculptural way of working.” Her subjects have evolved through distinct periods: early works explored birds and butterflies in vivid, abstracted form, while later bodies of work turned to oceans, storms, and atmospheric landscapes inspired by visits to Venice, Positano, and the Rocky Mountains. Music is integral to the process, with the rhythm and register of what she listens to directly influencing the marks she makes. In a 2025 post she put it plainly:

Horkan has exhibited widely across the UK and internationally. In London, her work has been shown at the OXO Tower and Harvey Nichols, and she has exhibited at the Affordable Art Fair Battersea (October 2024), the Affordable Art Fair Hampstead (May 2026), and Fresh Art Fair at Alexandra Palace in London (February 2026), as well as at fairs in Brussels and Singapore. Her work is held in private collections in America, Germany, Abu Dhabi, and Monaco. Her first solo exhibition, Through Her Eyes, opened at Eclectic Gallery in May 2026. She has been featured on the BBC website, reviewed by Anthony Fawcett (first art adviser to John Lennon and Yoko Ono), and profiled by Artists and Illustrators, Art Aesthetics, Rise Art, and DegreeArt. Her work has been selected for more than fifteen curated collections on Saatchi Art.

Original works are available for sale at Eclectic Gallery. Contact the gallery to enquire or arrange a private viewing.