Michael Young: Metal Rock

Metal Rock by Michael Young is a newly created collection, opening on 22 April 2016, at Veerle Verbakel Gallery during Art Brussels 2016. The limited edition collection will feature 12 unique and hand finished blue and gold aluminum objects, such as a chair, stools and (side) tables.

The Metal Rock collection is an extension of his solo exhibition at Grand Hornu “AL(L): Projects with Aluminum” which opened on 31 January 2016. Metal Rock is an illustration of objects resulting from specific engineering, development and techniques related to aluminum. Young shows his own products alongside designs of Ross Lovegrove, Jerszy Seymour, Xavier Lust, Charles and Ray Eames, Marcel Breuer and Jean Prouvé.

Young is an award winning designer and one of the most influential British designers of his generation. He expressed, “it is design as Industrial Art that interests me, not just as a limited edition, but on a scale of mass production.” 

Adhering to his design ethos, Young developed the aluminum objects as a set of steel tools in which molten aluminum can be injected with high temperature gas under pressure, resulting in foamy rock formations. Secondly, these objects are colored blue and/or gold in a facility that normally colors cellphone cases. Through this process, he explores the potential of the material: its flexibility, aesthetics, lightness and solidity. But it is the chair from the Metal Rock collection that Young says is “one of the most crazy and unusual things I’ve tried; almost impossible to make.” 

Metal Rock by Michael Young opens on 22 April 2016 at Veerle Berbakel Gallery (Zennestraat 19).

Veerle Berbakel Gallery: 19, Rue de la Senne, Brussels