Selçuk Yılmaz

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Art

Thousands of Meticulously Layered Strips of Metal Bring Selçuk Yılmaz’s Big Cat Sculptures to Life

Thousands of thin, intricately placed metal strips form powerful wildlife portraits by Selçuk Yılmaz (previously). Adding new meaning to “big cats,” his recent series explores the legendary power, courage, and resilience of jaguars, lions, and the prehistoric saber-tooth tiger. A painstaking process of hammering, layering and welding individual pieces links realistic representation and the addition of artistic elements, such as the regal adornment on the forehead of the lion, which is titled “King.”

Minimal, abstracted contours delineate the form of Yılmaz’s saber-tooth tiger, a huge cat that roamed what is now North and South America for millennia until they became extinct about 10,000 years ago. Combining a realistic face with a simple outline, the artist draws attention to its snarling expression and the fact that we can only imagine what the early mammals actually looked like. In “Jaguar,” a lifelike portrayal of a muscular feline interacts with the light through layered textures. “Since light and metal have opposite properties, they can create an interesting balance and contrast when they come together,” the artist tells Colossal. “It gives the feeling that light has a soul.”

Find more of Yılmaz’s work on Instagram and Behance.

 

Art

Enormous Metal Sculptures by Selçuk Yılmaz Embody Chaotic Effects of Climate Change

By hammering and welding more than 20,0000 metal pieces together, artist Selçuk Yılmaz (previously) creates massive sculptures that manifest the energy of the natural world as it becomes more damaged by humans and climate change. The Turkey-based artist’s latest project, Blue Planet, took almost two years to complete and features a human figure in addition to Yılmaz’s usual animals, like a nearly 10-foot-tall lion that weighs approximately 220 pounds.

Yılmaz tells Colossal he wanted the project to speak to environmental destruction, so he placed a human hand at the bottom of the arranged piece to signify it being the root cause. A lurking vulture waits nearby, hoping to eat the other animals after they die. “The woman holds her hand on a blue planet as if (to) save everything. It’s like a chaos,” he says. For more of the artist’s imposing creations, head to Behance or Instagram.

Art

A Towering Hammered Steel Lion by Selçuk Yılmaz

Sculptor Selçuk Yılmaz (previously) recently finished work on this gigantic lion sculpture of hammered and welded metal titled Kali. The Turkish artist has mastered the ability to form the flowing mane, facial features, and bold muscular structure of various large cats from curled steel fragments. You can see many of his earlier works over on Behance.

Art

New Hammered Steel Animal Head Sculptures by Selçuk Yılmaz

Turkish sculptor Selçuk Yılmaz (previously) just completed work on three new mask-like sculptures depicting the heads of a lynx, tiger, and fox. Yılmaz uses thin strands of hammered and welded steel that give each piece a beautiful curved musculature. You can see more details of each piece over on Behance.

 

Art

A Lion Made from 4,000 Pieces of Hammered Metal by Selçuk Yılmaz

Created from nearly 4,000 pieces of metal scraps, Aslan (Turkish for Lion), is a recent sculpture by Istanbul-based artist Selçuk Yılmaz. The piece took nearly a year of work and involved hand-cutting and hammering of each individual metal piece. The final work weighs roughly 550 pounds (250kg). While we’ve seen dozens of artists use multiple components to create a final form, it’s worth noting how well the bent mental lends itself to the final shape of this impressive cat. You can see much more of his work on Behance.