Current – Page 2 – Ilan Averbuch

The Sun on the Edge, 2021

The Sun on the Edge, 2021.

Cor-ten weathering steel and recycled granite

30 x 27 x 2 ft

The Sun on the Edge is a site-specific sculpture commissioned by the City of St. Petersburg for a roundabout in the EDGE District as part of a neighborhood revitalization project.
The image of the sun, constructed of granite, rests on its own reflection made of Cor-ten weathering steel. The use of industrial materials refers to the industrial history of the EDGE District. An invisible horizon line is suggested between the granite and steel, where the two meet is where the sun meets its reflection in the water. The work alludes to Florida as the “sunshine state,” and its unique peninsular geography, a state where you can see both the sunrise and the sunset on the water.
The massive stone rays define the sculpture’s shape, while the sun itself is formed by the interior empty space. The negative space frames the backdropping architecture, the landscape, and the sky. Pedestrians and drivers orbit the sculpture as the earth orbits the sun. This rotating movement creates a feeling of opening and closing, of rising and setting.

Located at the intersection of 11th Avenue North and Central Ave North, Edge District, St. Petersburg, FL.

Thoughts as Drawings

Ilan Averbuch: Thoughts as Drawings
Published by Ilan Averbuch Studio, 2021.
Softcover, perfect bound, 8.5 x 11 inches, 124 pages
First edition of 200

Ilan Averbuch: Thoughts as Drawings brings together forty years of works on paper from the sculptor Ilan Averbuch. The book comprises over 140 color reproductions of small sketches and large drawings created between 1981 and 2020. Primarily a sculptor, the artist’s drawings have taken the backstage to his monumental public installations and works for exhibition. By concentrating on them here, the publication brings them to the fore and illuminates their role in Averbuch’s artistic practice. The large drawings are tied directly to the making of a large sculpture, often a public project proposal or commission. The artist uses watercolor, graphite and charcoal to represent his primary materials: stone, steel, wood, glass, and copper. The publication showcases sketches and large drawings for proposals never before seen by the public. Drawings of completed sculptures are juxtaposed alongside unrealized proposals, creating an archive of built and unbuilt works. The publication includes an essay highlighting the artist’s process, influences, and intentions as illustrated across the temporal and geographic span of the included works.

The book is available for purchase: https://ilanaverbuch.square.site/

The Crucial Role of Arts in the Time of Global Crisis

Earlier this month I was part of a panel discussing the crucial role of arts in a time of global crisis hosted by CIMA Gallery.

As Far as the Eyes Can See, 2020

AS FAR AS THE EYES CAN SEE, 2020

Cor-ten weathering steel and granite / 24 x 48 x 18 ft / Commissioned by Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX

I wanted to share with you a new public project in Lubbock, Texas. As Far as the Eyes Can See is a site-specific sculpture commissioned for the newly renovated Weeks Hall at Texas Tech University.

Two colossal rings of rough-cut granite stone are placed near and parallel to each other. They are made of recycled curbstone from old cities and roads. A branch made of Cor-ten weathering steel hovers above the stone rings connecting to them at their apex forming a canopy. From a distance it is an object and an image, but as we enter the sculpture it becomes architectural and spatially engaging.

The twin stone circles suggest wheels, movement and physical motion, but can also be read metaphorically representing the circles of natural cycles. The stone rings remind us of two massive frames that offer alternating views of the surrounding landscape. The sculpture becomes a lens into and out of the campus inspired by the curiosity of inquisitive minds, asking students to look further than the limits they see before them.

Tappan Zee, 2020

TAPPAN ZEE, 2020

Cor-ten weathering steel and granite / 13 x 21 x 3 feet / Located on the Esposito Trail, Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in Nyack, NY

I wish to share with you a new public project for the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in South Nyack, NY. With galleries and museums currently closed and the art world switching to online programming, public art remains an accessible cultural venue that can be enjoyed while social distancing. If you are in the area, I hope you will find the time to visit the piece in person.

Tappan Zee is a site-specific public sculpture installed along the Raymond G. Esposito Trail, a pedestrian and cyclist path at the landing of the bridge in South Nyack.

A row of seven abstracted steel figures carry a stone canoe alongside pedestrians and bicyclists, in a shared metaphorical journey in procession towards the Hudson River. This sculpture pays homage to the Native American Lenape and their history along the river, while also symbolizing the value of collaboration in crossing rivers, building communities, and reaching new horizons. The title, Tappan Zee, references the original bridge built at this location crossing the Hudson at one of its widest points. The title combines “Tappan,” after the Native American tribe of the region with “zee,” the Dutch colonizers word for sea.

The work was commissioned by the New York State Thruway in partnership with ArtsWestchester and the Arts Council of Rockland.

For more information visit: https://mariomcuomobridge.ny.gov/explore-public-art

Ilan Ilan, 2020

ILAN ILAN, 2020, is a public sculpture created for the Ilan Gal-on Plaza in front of the Sapir building in the diamond bourse area of Ramat Gan, Israel. The duplicity in the title is partly because we both; the reason of the work, and the creator of it, carry the name Ilan which means “young tree” in Hebrew.

The work is made of stainless steel and glass. It rises out of an ecological water pool in front of the glass high-rise building to a height of 3.70 m. (12’) Each of the two elements are 5m. (16’) wide.

The image resembles two wide canopied desert Acacia trees leaning toward and slightly touching one another. Some will see in the angular shape, color, and translucent quality, a reference to the cut diamonds dealt with in the backdropping building. In this urban setting, the connection between the natural beauty of desert trees, diamonds and the modern industrial solution of “curtain architecture” is the essence and aesthetic of the work.

The House in the Boat the Boat in the House, 2019

The House in the Boat The Boat in the House, 2019
Boat: wood and steel; Barn: concrete, stone, red bricks, red tile. 40 x 58 x 24 feet
Installed at the Gut Holzhausen Estate, Nieheim, Germany.

The House in the Boat The Boat in the House is a permanent site-specific installation located in a working cow pasture. The work utilizes an existing barn and oak wood culled from the surrounding forest. This work creates a play between two images, the house and the boat. A house is a place with roots bound to the earth, a shelter of stability and protection. A boat is a seagoing vessel that takes us to the other side of the ocean, to the unknown. It conveys the inner human struggles that most of us share: the conflict between stability and dream, between security and fantasy or adventure. For more information about visiting Gut Holzhausen, see their website http://www.gut-holzhausen.de/.

Mammoth, 2018

A new public project installed at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA in partnership with the Washington State Arts Commission. For the exterior of the Samuelson Building I constructed, Mammoth, a large-scale installation that will act as an iconic landmark for the university. The imagery alludes to the mammoth fragment studied by the university and creates a visual metaphor for the scientific advancements made from that discovery. The sculpture is composed of two separate Cor-ten steel elements jutting out of the ground that make up one colossal image in our mind, suggesting a buried mammoth tusk with parts visible and parts invisible.

Ilan Averbuch: Meaning as Metaphors

STUDIO21 cordially invites you to an art talk & presentation
“Meaning as Metaphors” with Ilan Averbuch

Saturday, January 6, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
Studio 21
17L, Dover Terrace, Kolkata 700 019, Tel:2486 6735,
www.studio21kolkata.com

Review: Artist Sculpts Ties With Muse City, Telegraph India, Jan. 10, 2018.

Ilan Averbuch: The Lily Pond

Solo-Exhibition at Nancy Hoffman Gallery
520 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001
September 7 – October 21, 2017
Opening reception Sept. 7, 6 – 8pm

The Lily Pond is an immersive installation, a visual metaphor of an aquatic environment. The installation comprises 14 sculptures displayed on large recycled granite millstones, dispersed throughout the gallery. The stones are raised off the ground on a steel stem, creating a field of seemingly floating round platforms reminding us of large lily pads on the surface of a pond. Small sculptures in steel, stone and bronze occupy the surface of the lily pads, while a large stone boat raised on steel stilts floating in mid-air, becomes the mental vessel that guides the visitor through the exhibition.

The installation is accompanied by large drawings, referring to the imagery of the sculptures. The drawings, like the sculptures, allude to history, culture, landscape, dream, policy, discourse or human aspiration.

The outdoor courtyard will feature Skirts and Pants (After Duchamp), an earlier large wood and glass sculpture, of a group of five symbolic images intertwined in an endless mechanical choreography.

For images and additional information please visit the gallery website.

Ilan Averbuch: The Lily Pond
Exhibition Catalog, 24 pages, 8.5 x 11 inches, full color, 20 illustrations. $10+Shipping.