Emily Young was born in London into a family of writers, artists, politicians, naturalists and explorers.
Her grandmother was the sculptor Kathleen Scott, who worked with Auguste Rodin, and her uncle Peter Scott, was a founder member of the WWF in 1961.
As a young woman, she worked primarily as a painter, studying briefly at Chelsea School of Art, Central St Martins in London and Stonybrook University, New York.
She left London in the late 60s and spent the next years travelling widely, studying art and culture.
In the early 1980s she started carving stone, preferring to use discarded materials from abandoned quarries.
The primary objective of her sculpture brings the relationship of humankind and the planet into closer conjunction.
The natural beauty, history and energy of material stone, including its capacity to embody human consciousness, can endure into the future of a vast unknowable universe.
The sculptures have unique characteristics due to each individual stone’s geological history.
Her approach invites the viewer to comprehend a commonality across deep time, geography and cultures. The major preoccupation is humankind’s troubled relationship with the planet. The use of traditional carving skills allied with technology where necessary, allows her to produce timeless works which marry the contemporary with the ancient. The work manifests a unique, serious and poetic presence.
Young’s work is in important public and private collections throughout the world.
Emily Young has studios in Italy and Dorset, with a new showroom in London.
