Brent Kee Young
Matrix Series: Studies in Form/Illuminating The Common
March 4 – April 30, 2011
In the main space, Wexler Gallery is proud to present Brent Kee Young: Matrix Series: Studies in Form/Illuminating The Common. Show runs from March 4 – April 30, 2011. *An Opening Reception with the artist will take place on First Friday, April 1st from 5 – 8pm.
Interested in “the ambiguous nature of glass and the sense of space and volume one can create,” Brent Kee Young is well known for his web-like Matrix Series, a body of complicated flame worked glass sculptures based on formal studies. The Matrix Series typically explores two design ideas: some pieces are derived from simple geometric shapes while others are more object based, using recognizable everyday forms (such as the chair, vessel, or wire hanger) as a model to begin. According to the artist:
“The structure of the work is simple, yet complex, and very, very time consuming to build. All pieces from this series are flame worked, Corning Pyrex rods. They are fashioned in a way to form an organic, interconnected structure of which almost any shape might be realized. The idea came from looking at two things: one was an exposed root structure of a tree or plant, the other was pile of rebar building rubble from a razed building. With these images, making forms from that organic matrix was revealed.”
Young has received world-wide attention for the innovative concepts and techniques used in developing the Matrix Series from scholars, collectors, and makers alike. Work from the series can be found in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery and has been published in the New Glass Review 31 (2010), the annual survey of contemporary glass sponsored by The Corning Museum of Glass.
The artist is currently a professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He has served as a juror for The National Endowment for the Arts, lectured at the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery, and conducted numerous workshops in the U.S. and Asia including at The Niijima International Glass Art Festival, Niijima, Tokyo; the International Glass Art Society Conference, Seto, Japan; Grand Crystal, Peitou City, Taiwan, University of Kentucky, Louisville; and more. In 1990, Professor Young was selected as head of glass at Aichi University of Education, Kariya, Japan where he was responsible for establishing the studio, designing and implementing the curriculum and teaching the first glass program in a national university in Japan.