The Fine Art Society is pleased to announce two major exhibitions of new work by Emily Young (FRBS), widely acclaimed as Britain’s greatest living stone sculptor.

The first exhibition will be staged in the cloisters of the Madonna dell’Orto church in Venice from 9 May - 22 November 2015, to coincide with the 56th Venice Biennale.

Venice is a city of stone, and a city of stone carving; it is therefore a fitting location for this exhibition, which presents twenty monumental stone heads. Using rock from quarries near her studio in the Etruscan hills, Young’s work fuses the age-old principles of stone carving with a progressive, widely informed approach to form and composition. The contemporary and ancient are united in these sculptures, creating a rare and poetic presence that is amplified by the atmosphere of the tranquil Venetian cloister, which is part of the Madonna Dell’Orto church favoured by the Italian painter Tintoretto. Monumental yet strongly individualised, static yet expressive, these sculptures encourage the deep contemplation on mankind’s relationship with stone and its source of origin; the Earth.