About
Cybèle Young is a Toronto-based artist and author.
Cybèle Young is a renowned artist and author, whose work is exhibited and collected internationally. She spends her days creating miniature worlds from fine Japanese papers. Engaging with abstract and familiar motifs, she juxtaposes sculptures to create a sense of dialogue or play between them. Her intricate sculptural artworks are inspired by seemingly insignificant day-to-day experiences, where objects imply human interactions and small observations become fantastic.
Since graduating from sculpture and printmaking at the Ontario College of Art and Design in 1995, Cybèle has been showing her work in galleries around the world, such as New York, LA, Miami, London, Stockholm, Japan, Singapore, Korea and across Canada.
Since her first solo show 15 years ago, she has mounted over 20 solo exhibitions, and has been included in over 30 group shows and numerous annual art fairs.
She has won over twenty grants and awards including a four-month Canada Council studio residency in Paris.
Cybèle has received critical acclaim in such publications as Art in America, The New York Times, NYLON, Wallpaper, Canadian Art Magazine, Globe and Mail, Elle, Toronto Star, NOW and MacLeans.
Her work has also been featured online in such publications as Buzzfeed, Colossal, and Jocundist.
(see 'Press' for a complete list of press releases)
Her work resides in major collections around the world – including OMERS, Ernst and Young, BMO, Gryphon, Canadian Foreign Affairs and the Canada Council Art Bank – and in the private homes of collectors such as Ben Stiller, Noah Baumbach, and Christian Louboutin.
She has a permanent public work installed with the Toronto Transit Commission at Yonge and St. Clair (Deer Park Crescent).
She works in a diverse range of mediums, but always at the root is a close connection to the hand, to paper and to the drawn line. Cybèle has both written and illustrated 11 picture books to date.
Her books garner starred reviews and numerous awards. Most notably, she won the Governor General’s Award for her book ‘Ten Birds’ in 2011, and the TD book award for ‘Nancy Knows’ in 2015.
Cybèle is represented by Forum Gallery in New York and Los Angeles.
Artist Statement
My practice consists of making miniature sculptures from fine Japanese papers, some of which are embellished using etchings and other media. I create exact miniature replicas of real life objects and abstract shapes. Before the sculptures are sequestered to life under glass, I often animate their moving parts in stop motion film works, offering clues to their fictional history.
Engaging with abstract and familiar motifs, I juxtapose sculptures to create a sense of dialogue or play between them. I approach my work in series and components, ultimately building an ongoing inventory of personal experience and observation.
I compile these in various arrangements to create communities that interact and form new relationships – much like the small seemingly insignificant moments in our everyday lives that come together to create unexpected outcomes.
These manifest as miniature theatres - one act plays, where shifts of scale and perception occur. Despite the absence of the human form there is an implied presence, where the viewer can project themselves into another world.
I acknowledge, and am grateful for, the ongoing support of the
the Toronto Arts Council,
the Ontario Arts Council,
and
the Canada Council for the Arts
