Yoav S. Liberman
Yoav S. Liberman is a studio furniture artist. His work combines the old and new, using found objects and discarded wood as a source and inspiration for the pieces that he builds.
Yoav received his architectural degree from the Israel Institute of Technology. From 2001 to 2003, he was an Artist-in-Residence at the Worcester Center for Crafts. In September 2003, Yoav joined Eliot House at Harvard University where he teaches woodworking and furniture design.
His work has appeared in several juried exhibitions in the United States, most recently in the SOFA Chicago 2005 and in NEW / NOW: 10 Makers for the New Millennium Pathways and Process, at the Fuller Craft Museum. Yoav’s Etrog box was one of the finalists at the 2005 Niche Awards.
Yoav’s articles on furniture design and woodworking have been published in Israel’s leading design magazines. His work has also been featured in several nationwide publications, including the Harvard Gazette (2005, 2007), Woodwork Magazine (Oct 2007) and the Boston Globe (Nov 2007). Two of his pieces have appeared in a recent art book on innovative approaches to woodturning – 500 Wood Bowls (Lark Books 2004).
Yoav designs and builds his pieces at his Harvard studio in Cambridge MA. His pieces can be found in galleries in Cambridge, Worcester and Acton as well as in private collections in the United States, Israel and England.
Artist Statement
Found objects and discarded wood serve as both the literal and the metaphorical “raw material” for all my work: they provide the actual physical basis out of which a new piece will be formed; but just as crucially, they provide the conceptual inspiration for that new piece.
I find myself especially inspired by the hidden potential in objects which are no longer desirable for their original purpose—the lid of a now missing frying pan, the frame of an old metal filing cabinet. As lids or cabinets they may be well past their prime, but when combined with other materials they can be reincarnated as new, functional, aesthetically interesting pieces.
Most of my “raw materials” are objects that I find myself somewhat inexplicably drawn to, either because they exude a sort of material integrity, or because I am saddened to see them abandoned. Once I find such objects—I am always prowling through people’s discarded wares—I sketch, study, contemplate, and eventually design new elements to help transform the undesirable into the coveted.
