EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth and final installment in a five-part series. Part One was published on Monday. Part Two was published on Tuesday. Part Three was published on Wednesday. Part Four was published on Thursday.
ASHLAND — Stephen Yusko is a Cleveland-based artist who creates sculpture, furniture, vessels and jewelry that incorporate forged, machined and fabricated steel with mixed materials.
His work explores the relationships between form, function and craftsmanship, often inspired by structural components and mechanical systems.
Ashland City Schools Distinguished Alumni series
The Ashland City Schools Foundation will be hosting its 12th biennial Distinguished Alumni banquet Saturday, Sept. 27, at the Ashland University Convocation Center.
Five new inductees have been selected and will be honored, bringing the total inducted since the first event in 2003 to 65.
This week, Ashland Source is featuring information on one inductee per day through Friday.
With a sensitivity to materials and process, Yusko creates works that merge industrial precision with organic imperfection, reflecting themes of balance, distance and concepts of time.
Recent works are a response to the precarious nature of our relationships with the environment, the political landscape and with each other.
After graduating from Ashland High School in 1983, Yusko earned his bachelor’s degree in Sculpture, with minors in Metalsmithing and Art History from the University of Akron.
He followed that with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Yusko has been an artist-in-residence at the Metal Museum in Memphis, Tenn., and at the historic Rose Iron Works in Cleveland.
He has taught at several prestigious institutions, including Haystack School of Crafts (Maine), Penland School of Crafts (North Carolina) and SUNY Purchase (New York), where he was a Windgate Artist-in-Residence.
Yusko has also served on the Board of Trustees for the Haystack School and the Venezuelan-based La Caravana Escuela.
His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with notable exhibitions at the Metal Museum in Tennessee and the Ruthin Craft Centre in Wales.
Yusko and his work have been featured in American Craft Magazine and Metalsmith Magazine, as well as in several books, including 500 Metal Vessels (Lark Publishing).
Recognized for contributions to the field, Yusko has received four Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards and a Cuyahoga County Creative Workforce Fellowship.