Ben Young

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Art

Lustrous Seas of Layered Glass Are Sliced into Cross-Sections in Ben Young’s Sculptures

Calm bodies of hand-cut glass pool atop jagged concrete in Ben Young’s aquatic sculptures. The New Zealand-based artist (previously) is known for his marine landscapes that position miniature figures in vast expanses of the translucent material, creating a contemplative environment that juxtaposes a minuscule representation of humanity alongside the immensity of the oceans and other bodies of water. Each piece similarly contrasts the organic topography with the perfect right angles that provide the cubic shape and revealing cross-sections.

A few of Young’s sculptures are currently available at Black Door and Red Sea galleries, and you can find prints in his shop. Explore a larger collection of his works on Behance and Instagram.

 

Art

New Sculptures by Ben Young Transform Hand-Cut Glass into Aquatic Landscapes

Ben Young (previously) continues to use exquisite manual techniques to transform sheets of glass into luminous sculptures that give a glimpse into a moment in time or space. The artist envisions, hand-cuts, and carefully constructs layers of glass to evoke water, often offset with organically-shaped concrete topography, as well as metal details like a diver, lighthouse, or sailboat. Young, who is based in New Zealand, describes his latest body of work on his website:

Sentiments of the Sublime explores the nostalgic many and collective perspectives of the relationship between man and nature. In creating work, by hand, that makes reference to the myriad of perspectives and experiences of others, Young’s work is both deeply personal to the viewer and at the same time exploring subject matter that is universal, connecting Young, his work and his viewers in a moment of awe and nostalgia.

Young recently had his first solo show at REDSEA Gallery in Singapore, and currently has a piece, At The Helm, on view at Black Door Gallery in Aukland. Young also offers prints of his sculptures and shares updates on his work via Behance, Facebook, and Instagram.

 

Art

Broken Liquid: New Bodies of Water Sculpted from Layered Glass by Ben Young

Glass artist Ben Young (previously) just shared a glimpse of his latest sculptural works made from layers of cut laminate window panes. The bodies of water depicted in Young’s work are usually cut into cross-sections akin to textbook illustrations, creating translucent geometric islands that can appear both monolithic or chasmic.

“I hope viewers might imagine the work as something ‘living’ that creates the illusion of space, movement, depth and sense of spatial being,” Young says. “I like to play with the irony between the glass being a solid material and how I can form such natural and organic shapes.” The self-taught artist, furniture maker, and surfer has explored the properties of cut glass for over a decade at his Sydney studio. Here’s a bit more about his processes via Kirra Galleries:

Each of Young’s sculptural works are hand drawn, hand cut and handcrafted from clear sheet float glass made for windows, then laminated layer upon layer to create the final form. He constructs models, draws templates, makes custom jigs and then cuts the layers with a glazier’s hand-tool. The complexity comes from the planning phase, where he says “I do a lot of thinking before I even start to draw or cut.” He then sketches the concept by hand and creates a plan using traditional technical drawing techniques: “I work with 2D shapes and have to figure out how to translate that into a 3D finished piece. Sometimes my starting point changes dramatically as I have to find a way to layer the glass to create certain shapes.” The texture and colour of the glass varies in every piece according to its thickness and arrangement.

Young opens a new exhibition of work along with artist Peter Nilsson titled Float at Kirra Galleries this evening in Melbourne.

 

Art

Layered Glass Wave Sculptures by Ben Young

Sculptor Ben Young (previously) just unveiled a collection of new glass sculptures prior to the Sculpture Objects Functional Art + Design (SOFA) Fair in Chicago next month. Young works with laminated clear float glass atop cast concrete bases to create cross-section views of ocean waves that look somewhat like patterns in topographical charts. The self-taught artist is currently based in Sydney but was raised in Waihi Beach, New Zealand, where the local landscape and surroundings greatly inspired his art. You can learn more about his sculptures on Facebook.

 

Art

Sheets of Glass Cut into Layered Ocean Waves by Ben Young

Self-taught artist Ben Young is a man of many exceptional talents from surfing and skateboarding to repairing furniture and working full-time as a qualified boat builder. He’s also spent the last decade exploring the art of sculpting with glass, an endeavor that’s become increasingly rewarding as galleries and collectors have started to take notice.

Using sheet after sheet of carefully cut glass, Young builds both abstract and realistic interpretations of waves and bodies of water, undoubtedly influenced by growing up near the beautiful Bay of Plenty on the northern coast of New Zealand’s North Island. Many people assume his work is made with the help of machines, or maybe even 3D printing, but instead everything is done completely by hand, from his initial sketches on paper to the manual cutting of each glass pane, a process he aptly describes as “a lot of work.”

You can see several more of his glass sculptures over on Tumblr, and in the video above by David Child. Young is represented by Kirra Galleries in Melbourne and the photos above are courtesy Robert Gray Photography and Zico O’Neill. You can also follow him on Facebook.