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.
The Bridge
The Bridge, 2023
Cor-ten weathering steel, recycled steel bridge parts, recycled granite
18 x 34 x 12 feet
Located at Cauley Creek Park in Johns Creek, GA
The Bridge is a sculpture celebrating the bridge as a foundational form which connects communities. It takes the shape of two groups of recycled abstract figures made of the steel from the old bridge. The two groups are held together by carrying a colossal arch made of recycled stone. The recycled materials are emblematic of transformation: in life and in time and form.
The Boat in the Field
The Boat in the Field, 2023
Cor-ten weathering steel and recycled granite
25 x 20 x 12 feet
Located at ML “Red” Trabue Nature Reserve in Dublin, OH
The sculpture consists of two intertwined images. A cor-ten steel towering shelter consists of a spire roof on multiple bent long columns and a boat structure made of recycled granite, floating in midair. While the tall towering shelter connotes stability and rootedness, the boat is a symbol of transience and journeying into the unknown, beyond the horizon. Juxtaposing these two images represents stasis and kinesis, two forces vital to the human condition.
A Behind the Scenes Studio Visit with Dublin Arts Council
On March 15th, 2023 I gave the Dublin Arts Council a studio visit as well as some insight into my daily life in the studio.
Forthcoming Sculpture The Boat in the Field for ML “Red” Trabue Nature Reserve in Dublin, OH
More information about this sculpture can be found in this article in The Columbus Dispatch here
Meet the New York sculptor turning Rogers Bridge steel into a 34 ft statue
I was featured in the Alpharetta-Roswell Herald for an upcoming project in Jones Creek, GA. Read about it here
Skirts and Pants, 2000 in the backyard terrace of Nancy Hoffman Gallery
This work deals with one of the seminal works of the 20th Century, Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors Even (The Large Glass), and engages Duchamp’s attempt to reduce the figure to a flat image locked in glass. My approach was to take the opposite stand—to monumentalize the figures and to free them into a three-dimensional installation.
The Sun, 2019 in the backyard terrace of Nancy Hoffman Gallery
Stone
Monument to Their Memory
Cor-ten weathering steel and recycled granite
25 x 13 x 4 feet
Located at Golden Spike National Historical Park in Promontory, Utah
The image of a colossal railroad track rises from the ground up toward the sky. As it climbs upwards, it diminishes gradually creating a feeling of distance until it reaches a vanishing point. The top of the sculpture curves slightly to one side suggesting a slow gradual turn of direction. The rails of the track are made of Cor-ten weathering steel supporting crossties of massive recycled granite. The granite is recycled from old bridges and used to line many American roads as curbstone. By lifting the image of a vanishing railroad track upright, the work creates a bridge between the terrestrial and the celestial, as if it is a ladder connecting the sky and the earth. The work’s connection to the heavens memorializes the lives of the railroad workers that built the first Transcontinental Railroad; it joins the hands that made the work in the past to the visitors in the present day.
The Sun on the Edge, 2021
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.
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/
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