Ian Collings
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Ian Collings is an American sculptor and designer based in Ojai, CA. His collections of sculpture and functional objects are influenced by his immersion in the natural world and through an intellectual inquiry into the nature of things.
With a bachelor’s of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, Ian Co-founded the furniture design company Fort Standard in 2011. He left the company in 2018 to dedicate himself to his sculptural work which had been a driving motivation throughout the venture. After a three year inspirational hiatus spent living mostly in the rainforest of central america, his new insights and well developed interests of the past are synthesized in a robust spectrum of new works. The treatment of material into both industrial and organic forms are underpinned by themes of emergence and interconnectedness in his work.
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Works
Ian Collings
Stone Totem 01, 2025Pink marble182 H x 30 W x 34 D cm
71.6 H x 11.8 W x 13.3 D in
77kgFurther images
Description
Ian Collings carves marble with a reverence for its deep time, shaping forms that feel both ancient and emergent. This piece is carved from a single block of onyx from New Mexico, a banded form of calcite distinguished by its undulating layers of warm, earthy hues - also know as ‘travertine onyx’. Ian notes on his works as sculpture, ‘I think there’s like a need for humans to define and understand things. The sooner we can crystallize something into a solid idea, the more comfortable we feel because we understand it. For example, there’s the idea of “chair-ness”. If someone recognizes a chair, in that moment, the idea of “chair-ness” collapses into something that they understand. But sculpture doesn’t necessarily collapse or crystallize in the same way. That, for me, creates room for metaphysical ideas, the sculpture becomes something to play with in order to have a conversation about our relationship to other things.’5of 5Signature WorksExhibitions
