Glass artist and Cleveland Institute of Art Professor Emeritus Brent Kee Young, has been recognized by scores of museums, galleries, colleges and universities in the United States and Asia, which have displayed and/or acquired his work or invited him to speak, demonstrate or teach. Young’s most recent explorations in glass is the Matrix Series, unique constructions of intricate and technically complex forms of flameworked, web-like borosilicate glass rods.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery’s first acquisition of Young’s, an earlier blown glass Fossil Series piece, was featured most recently in “This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World” in 2023. The Renwick acquired its second piece by Young for its permanent collection, “Amphora… Save” of the Matrix Series, in 2006. Young is the recipient of the 2023 Individual Excellence Award presented by the Ohio Art’s Council, Columbus, OH; was selected as a Northern Ohio, Creative Workforce Fellow, a fellowship generously supported by the Citizens of Cuyahoga County and the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture 2011; the Victor Schreckengost Award for Teaching 2008 and the Cleveland Arts Prize for Visual Arts 1987. Publications include the selections in Corning New Glass Review’s; Glass, Urban Glass Quarterly; and “50 Years of Studio Glass” a selection of 50 top glass artists working worldwide.

Young’s works are included in numerous public collections, a few of which include The Cleveland Museum of Art, OH; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; The Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA; The Corning Museum of Glass, NY; The Toledo Museum of Art, Glass Pavilion, OH; The Hokkaido Museum of Art, Sapporo, Japan; and The Smithsonian American Art Museum, DC. Numerous works in the Matrix Series have been recently acquired by The Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, FL and the Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA; both museums focus on the most prominent glass artists in the American and International Studio Glass Movements.

Young has conducted glass-working workshops in the U.S. and Asia including at the Niijima International Glass Art Festival, Niijima, Japan; the International Glass Art Society Conferences, Seto, Japan and Toronto Canada; Grand Crystal, Peitou City, Taiwan; University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL; Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville; University of Kentucky, Louisville; and California Polytechnic University, San Louis Obispo. He has served as a juror for The National Endowment for the Arts and lectured at the Smithsonian Institution's Renwick Gallery. In 1990, Young was selected as head of glass at Aichi University of Education, Kariya, Japan where he was responsible for establishing the studio, designing and implementing the curriculum, and teaching the first glass program in a national university in Japan.

Since retiring from teaching, Emeritus Professor Young continues his inquiries into mysteries that working with glass has to offer...

Image: Brent with Matrix Series: "Reach....", 2023.

Selected Permanent Public Collections

• Art Institute of Chicago, IL • Birmingham Museum of Art, AL • Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA • Cleveland Museum of Art, OH • Columbia Museum of Art, SC • Contemporary Glass Art Museum of Alcorcón (Madrid), Spain • Corning Museum of Glass, NY • Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA • High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA • Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan • Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, FL • Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, FL • Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI • Milwaukee Public Museum, WI • Morris Museum of Art, August, GA • Museum of American Glass of Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, Millville, NJ • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA • Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA • New Orleans Museum of Art, LA • Niijima Contemporary Glass Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan • North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC • Racine Art Museum, WI • Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC • Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA • Toledo Museum of Art, Glass Pavilion, OH •

Brent's work is represented by

• Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, MI
• Hawk Galleries, Columbus, OH
• Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA
• RARE Gallery, Jackson, WY