A headless, life-sized horse sculpture made completely out of scrap metal stands outside the AACC Physical Plant.

The horse is missing its head, but Dr. Sergio Alvarez, the artist who created the sculpture, said this is only temporary while he improves it.

“I saw it when it had a head and I thought it was really cool,” Gabriella Rivera, a freshman architecture major, said. “I like that it’s so abstract, but you still know what it is.”

Alvarez is a retired surgeon and self-described permanent student at AACC. He started the sculpture as a two-semester project for a metal working class two years ago and continues to make improvements.

He said various drawings and paintings of horses inspired him, especially Peter Paul Rubens’ interpretation of the lost Leonardo da Vinci painting, “The Battle of Anghiari,” showing men battling for a rally point on horseback.

“I wanted to make a dynamic [sculpture] instead of a static sculpture,” Alvarez said.
A static sculpture is one that appears to be still, while a dynamic one that appears to be frozen in motion.

He used various scrap metals, including hoods from cars for the mane and pieces of fans for the eyes.

Many students and faculty said they like the sculpture.

“It’s a very impressive piece of metal that gives me a small smile every time I pass it,” Dr. Paul Larson, an assistant professor of economics, said.

Students and faculty who have seen the sculpture said it should move to a location on campus with more foot traffic where more people can see it.

Wilfredo Valladares, the associate professor of Sculpture and 3-D who oversaw the horse’s creation, said the location of the sculpture is temporary, until the college decides whether to install it permanently.

Aside from the horse, two other sculptures stand on campus: Martin Luther King Jr.’s statue is between CADE and CALT, and “Frontier,” a large abstract piece, is outside of Careers in front of the Quad.